Mitchell's Potawatomi Journal

An eventful weekend in January!

2012-01-17T12:21:00.000-08:00

My grandchildren danced at the Battle of the Plains in Bartlesville, Oklahoma this past weekend. It’s a school sponsored event. It’s always a big deal to the kids to go there and dance, eat and stay in a motel. We try our best to support them. In years past, the event conflicted with our quarterly general council meeting, but not this year – that doozie is scheduled for this coming weekend.

Enroute to Bartlesville, I swerved off the beaten path and drove to see the Lucky Star Casino, which is located nine miles south of Wichita. It seems that their claim to fame is to save the state from themselves and to hurt our casino business, but only time will judge that one. The property has its own turnpike entrance and ramp to get off. In the parking lot, I noticed Geary County tags more than any other, which is the Wichita area.

It is a building under construction and they have the machines and table games set up in horse arena for the time being, but don’t get me wrong it is a gambling environment. They have seats already in place for future horse-shows and they are located about the temporary gaming floor. I don’t see the connection between successful gaming and horse shows, but it must have some draw there. There is lot of room in this section and the crowd was fairly good for a Friday afternoon. All the table games were full and the mix of gaming machines were mostly dollars and penny machines with few quarter machines. The seating was comfortable and it was easy to get around.

I think this casino is a convenient drive for Wichita people and will cut into the business of Indian casinos further south in Oklahoma. I don’t see how they can impact our operation because of how far away this casino is away, the average person probably only drives here only occasionally, anyway. I, personally wouldn’t drive to Mulvane just to gamble, maybe yes, it I was going by to some other location. It doesn’t have the atmosphere or the ambiance yet and thankfully they did not take advantage of me at the machines.

After this diversion, we made it to Oklahoma, saw a beautiful Golden Eagle perched in a tree close to the road, Indian casinos on every corner, saw some friendly folk, and saw the country-side, mostly cause I took the wrong turn. I thought I was going to Deliverance, Arkansas. Yes, I went into a cold sweat when I saw that Deliverance sign 80 miles.

My daughter said “Who goes n takes a gravel road thinking its a shortcut? Felt like i was gonna be n that movie wrong turn! ONLY GM,” but we made it to Bartlesville. It’s always an adventure riding with me! But let me tell you this isn’t the first time this old guy got lost.

They had a honor song for Anita Evans who has worked with the Indian kids at Royal Valley for a good number of years and it is great when people are recognized for the hard work they’ve done. Anita is retiring from teaching.

I got to visit my family and a bunch of friends, we pigged a bunch, gambled a little, and we spent some time with Jennifer and Teddie my first cousins. Poor things- they live in Oklahoma full-time! But all fun and games must end sometime and it soon became time to head back to the cruel, cruel world of our political life on the Potawatomi Reservation. The road trip ended at 2:00 pm Sunday, and my dog was happy I made it home! He doesn’t give a damn if I get lost!

On this trip some of the white folk were friendly, many Indians weren't. They must have a general council meeting next week too! I tell people our general councils are a time when elected officials have to pay for their sins, real or perceived and a tongue lashing happens for 4-8 hours. After this purge of emotions is all laid out on the table, a general shock comes over some, and for some it serves the purpose of making people feel better about themselves. We have a slug of non-Indians and non-tribal members who work for this tribe who don’t have to go. They are lucky to have those jobs, but don’t have to see the dynamics of how a tribal structure or tribal politics really work. Damn lucky!

January, 2012

2012-01-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

Let’s look around us at the developments of the day:

The weather here on the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Reservation has been close to tropical, but I wouldn’t plan on it staying that way. These unplanned days have allowed me to get more work done in the yard. I had some branches cut in my back-yard and I hauled them off over the weekend and one big branch decided to whip back at me and it cut me above my eye and knocked off my glasses. I had my grandson, Pat ko shuk, administer first aid to stop the bleeding and I went on my merry way. Some day, I will cut back on this labor, but don’t know when!

With the National Championship game being played tonight at 7:30 between LSU and Alabama, I bet those Cowboys from OSU will be kicking the proverbial rock down the street for losing to Iowa State, which goes to show you can’t let your guard down at all during the regular season. OSU ended up with a 12-1 record.

A local political observer told me the other day: “The federal government wasn’t meant to run everything. That’s why we have local government.” Well let’s see how that plays out in Wichita. Boeing is leaving Wichita after a million years being there and 2,160 employees have lost their jobs. Politicians pushed hard for pork and they were awarded all kind of contracts and given numerous tax concessions to stay, but they left anyway. This is a blow to that city, and now Kansas politicians and the D.C. delegation are under fire for not doing more.

Speaking of politicians if you want:

Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal on Thursday apologized for an email that made fun of first lady Michelle Obama’s hair style and mockingly called her “Mrs. YoMama.” According to the Lawrence Journal World, O’Neal forwarded from his personal computer the email that said, “I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation — at our expense, of course.”

The O’Neal incident comes just weeks after U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, apologized to the first lady for commenting on the size of her backside.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Sensenbrenner referred to Obama’s “big butt” while talking to church members at a Christmas bazaar. According to the newspaper’s account, Sensenbrenner thought Obama was a hypocrite for undertaking a national initiative to fight obesity. Politicians don’t have to worry about racial comments, I guess!

But in the business world, last month an employee cashier reportedly used "Ching" and "Chong" in the customer identification line on the receipts. He was dismissed for violating operating standards. In another incident, Papa John’s terminated an employee for writing “lady chinky eyes” on a receipt in New York City. Customers said “Your employees are your brand,” Yet, politicians can make remarks like those two yahoos against the first lady of the United States with no consequences. This is another case of stupid politics and a lack of respect.

An a lesson to us all: A 58-year-old man accused of drinking while driving a lawn mower has been charged with assaulting a southwest Missouri law enforcement officer in Willard, Missouri. And what was that message: Maybe don’t’ drink and drive while you mow your weeds.

Oh well, it makes for interesting reading !

Xmas 2011

2011-12-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

I know this isn’t good to talk about, but all the political news coming out of D.C. is sickening to hear and read about. One side hates the other and vice-versa and it doesn’t look like there are any viable political solutions in sight or at least any time soon. On January 1 many people will wake up with a hum-dinger of a hangover, but also 160,000 million hard-working Americans will see payroll taxes go up, and another two million will lose unemployment benefits because those jokers in D.C . have to indulge in a political pissing contest. It's bad enough, that they already see their taxes thrown down into a bottom-less pit with no results.

It’s the same old tired thing, the Congressman who is already comes from a rich family, has a truly nice salary, great benefits and one sterling retirement package will tell his adoring constituency what they want to hear and they will bring back the pork to their districts and everybody is happy. Of course, he has his fingers crossed behind his back when he is saying all these political things to his voters. When it’s all said and done, the payroll tax will go up, the esteemed congressmen will go on break and go home and tell their people that it’s the other side holding up progress in the country, Obama will fly to Hawaii to play a little golf and lounge on the beaches which is good for them, but not for America. Of course, we gullible folks will vote them right back into office. Damn, and people condemn Indian politics. Oh, well it best not to pay attention to politics anyway so you won’t be disappointed. Nonetheless, politicians will ruin everything we have in this great country if they continue to have free political rein.

We had some bad weather here in Kansas, but the main storm missed us. It will happen soon enough though. Christmas looms on the horizon and I need to do something about this shopping thing. Maybe it’s time to stop writing and do my best Tim Tebow imitation and offer a personal confession: I haven’t done any shopping for gifts and probably won’t. Wouldn’t it be pathetic to see me down at the mall at this stage of the game trying to figure out what to buy? The truth of the matter is that my wife does the shopping and doesn’t really want me along since I must give the impression that I would rather be somewhere else. She wraps the gifts up and the girls and grandchildren open up their gifts and say “thank you Misho and Grandma.” And then I say, “ok, what did I get you.” That too is pathetic, but what can I do?

Also during these festive times, I sometime get scared and fearful when I get behind the wheel of my vehicle. I can just hope those beastie deer don’t decide to cross my path because they can do some real damage to your car and to you. They are heated up like a politician in a D.C. hotel room, so its not all their faults. I did see a beautiful wild-life scene the other day on my way to Dancing Ground: A fairly good sized bobcat ran in front of me, it was right pretty and could cover some ground. The bobcat is a graceful animal. It's been awhile since I've seen one here! When I was younger than I am now, I used to own coon-hounds. I did a lot of hunting with my neighbor and one time our dogs treed a bobcat. I had it stuffed and still have it today.

Oh, on the morning news they said the dead North Korean leader has a warm corner in hell waiting for him, so much for good feelings at Xmas time! But don’t let all these dark writings hold you back from having a great Christmas. From me to you and your family: Merry Christmas!

Diggin up pictures!

2011-12-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

This the last picture we took as three brothers. Larry, on the far right, died later that year in 2007. We were at a Potawatomi Gathering and for the hell of it, we took this picture by the buffalo head. It was crazy because a slug of people took our picture too for some reason. I wanted to share this picture so I won't forget either. We really had a good time that summer day!

This is my nephew, Steven Mitchell, he dropped by from some tiny place near Phoenix, AZ. Steven wanted to visit his Potawatomi relatives for a few days. I'm glad I was at the Craft Sale when he pulled in. His journey was well over 20 hours on the train. My grandson Pat ko shuk wanted to know about him. I told him he is the son of my brother Bubs and he would be closer to an Uncle to him than a cousin, in our way. I missed seeing him grow up, along with other nephews and nieces and I'm so glad to see them when they do come here to visit. It's hard for an old cold hearted guy like me to develop tears but I did today when my nephew hugged me, but don't tell anybody.

Songs, movies, book-writers and college professors!

2011-12-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

As I get older and try to write on occasion, I look back on possible influences. As a teenager which was a blue moon ago, my brothers and I would listen to Bob Dylan and Creedance Clearwater Revival in the 60s, but I don’t remember any good music happening in the following decades. I think Dylan and John Fogerty of the CC Revival were excellent writers and their work will stand out for a long time. They could put the words together in a beautiful fashion and tell a story of a torn generation, where revolution was the catch-word. People were against this and that, kinda like today. For example, in the song “Fortunate Son” Fogerty sang:

“It aint’ me. I ain’t no Senators son. I’m no fortunate son. I ain’t no millionaires son. It ain’t me.”

He referred to how the rich folk didn’t go to war (Vietnam at the time), but all the poor people did – kinda like a bunch of young Potawatomi’s did back then. And Dylan had a message in all his songs. I always thought, damn these guys had such a gift of telling a story. Can you imagine writing one hit song and living off the royalties?

I’m not much of a movie buff, but I couldn’t help admire the writing in the movie Forrest Gump. It was funny at times, serious at times and showed how Gump fell into the accidental fame category. One day, he was showing Elvis how he would dance to a song and pretty soon Elvis was on tv doing Forrest Gump’s dance. He was always in the background of some event such as the day they let blacks attend white schools. And since he could run so fast, “run Forrest run,” he parlayed that into a football scholarship at Alabama playing for the Bear. From there he went to Vietnam to become a war hero, a champion ping-pong player, a lucky fisherman and savvy investor to become a rich guy. His memorable quote on this:

"Lieutenant Dan got invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I get a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, that's good! One less thing."

During the whole process, he was to meet several Presidents. “I’m going to meet the President, again,” in a voice only Forrest Gump could say – the emphasis was on “again.” But the point was that each story-line was so imaginative and believable and I was so amazed somebody could think of putting all these stories together in one movie. Never in another hundred years, in my opinion, will somebody come up with a movie like that again. In fact, somebody said recently all the good stories have already been told. It would be nice to be surprised though!

I thought Hunter Thompson could tell a story well and I read most of his books. They were descriptive pieces of work and I liked the way he told the story. Recently, I read a Simon Winchester book about China and he did a great job of educating the reader about this country and at the same time to tell a story, also very descriptive. A singer named Steve Earle wrote a novel called “I won’t be leaving this world alive,” and I don’t know that I’m going to read the book anytime soon. I might if I saw it on the bargain book rack, but I liked the title and who would have ever thought of a naming it that?

I covered possible influences in song-writing, movies and book-writers, but I can’t leave out college professors. I graduated from Washburn University in Topeka. I think they got tired of seeing an old Indian guy walking around their campus. The higher-ups got together on a cold winter night in the administrative offices and said "give that Indian his degree and get him out of here", so I moved on in the Spring of 1993.

Before I took that step into college life, I had worked construction and in packing houses, but a knee injury made me think about changing course. I had some help before I went to college. I always read during those early years, the early wild years but my time wasn't always an alcohol-fogged life. I read many books, newspapers and as many magazines as I could get my hands on especially those from the local laundry mat. So that made my classes fairly easy and the reading wasn't a problem for me, but I did struggle with the writing, at least in the beginning. I worked hard at it, though. I went out and bought several books on the subject and read them extensively. I never developed into a professional, but learned enough to tell a story or something close to that.

I majored in Political Science and I took a large number of history classes (I lacked 6 hours from having a double major). Political Science was a hard subject but it was a helluva lot easier than the history classes I took at Washburn. Both subjects had some excellent teachers like Cecil-Fronsman, Freeman, and Wagner, to name a few. They made me work on the writing and of course the subject itself. It seemed like the 15 page papers never stopped but that helped me later when I wrote about our tribe and other stories.

All of this intangibles of life combined may help explain some influences that made my writing a bit easier. That's all I got to say about that!

Fences, windows, bad backs and graffiti!

2011-11-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

I had some busy weekends in November. I replaced part of my fence in the backyard. I put up the old fence back in the 1980s and the main reason was that I wanted to put in some trees and plants, but also to have some privacy. Before I did that, the local dogs would dig up the new plants, so I had to take drastic measures. The fence over the years started to sag, which was the result of not doing it right the first time. When I put in the posts in concrete, I didn’t let it set for four or five days, so it sagged. This time I did it right! Putting in the fence and a new flower bed took me and Mike, a guy who lives south of me, a couple of weekends to get done. I wanted to cut my big garden down, so I hauled the dirt from my garden in a bobcat and put it over the top of the fence and after that we wheel-barreled it into the flower bed. I had to put a small fence in to keep my dog Koda out of the bed. Moving dirt put the hurt on these old bones, but now it’s ready for Spring planting. I intend to plant some of my garden stuff closer to my house and water. It will be easier for me to maintain a few garden areas instead of one huge one. A big garden is very time-consuming and between that and mowing my big yard left me little free time to do other things. Now with this plan in hand, maybe I will end my strike against the Royals. I’ve went to one game since the 1994 baseball strike. I’m a little more interested since they have a solid bunch of young players, so I may go watch one game anyway.

I’m a garage sale freak. I sometimes go and look and never buy anything. My daughter tells me why don’t you buy something? I respond that it’s the hunt that counts and in that context I have made some good buys. One time I bought a door with three windows in it, an old-time design, for $5.00 and I replaced the front door of my work-shop with it, put some paint on it and it looks like it belongs. A few weeks back I bought a 36x66 window for $10.00 at another garage sale. It was cold outside which made it difficult to do my outside work, so I decided to put in the window in the back of my work-shop, but I had to replace some 2x6s and built up the area for my new used window. It took me a few hours but I did get the window in and the trim work done and new paneling. (I used paneling to hang my pictures on because when I get older, I will sit in my daughters discarded barber chair and look at my pictures and souvenirs from my travel on my walls and remember what once was). I finished it up with some high dollar paint I bought for $5.00 at another garage sale. Damn, see how far an old Indian guy will go to justify a garage sale purchase. I enjoy that kind of work, but I ain’t no carpenter either. I do it for the fun of it and my back is telling me to slow down on projects for a while.

On another note, my nephew said: “Can't help but feel sad for our reservation. It has so much potential to look and feel great but it's antagonized by hooligans and citizens who just dont care anymore. When i drive around i see graffiti on bridges, playgrounds, and signs. That is if the signs still there and not filled with bullets. Feels bad man...” Yup, nephew this place has changed a bunch over the recent years. It’s an indictment on all of us who live here for not taking care of what we are lucky to have. I paid for my home and took care of my place for all these years and when you have a stake in something you take care of it, but everybody don’t feel that way, but there is no personal satisfaction either.

Birds, Jayhawks, censorship and shoppers

2011-11-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

So many countless birds died so we could fill our bellies on turkey-day yesterday but that's the way it's suppose to be, I suppose. My family and I went to the big city, ate at this place that was open, it was good. We ate and left. No dishes, no ritual with all-night cooking and no worn out grandma. Once done there, we were able to retire to the easy chair and nap, dreaming good dreams when we owned all of this country, hunted and fished where we wanted. Back then we didn’t have to have a permit to do those things, of course. The only worry we had was finding food to live on and to fight off those other tribes trying to infringe on our territory. Then somebody fed a group of Pilgrims some turkey and our lives changed forever. But once the dream was over, we have to move on from that nightmare, kinda like our other birds in Kansas.

The Jayhawks are in rebuilding mode and trying to find where they stand in the big picture called the NCAA . The other night they gave those preppies from Duke all they wanted and if it wasn’t for that scrub off the bench who despite having his eyes shut made a three pointer to seal KU’s loss in the Maui Invitational. KU lacks bench strength, which will hurt them, but the big-time is right around the corner with a top-of-the line 2012 recruits coming in and the depth problem will go way. T-Rod might stick around for another year since prospects don’t look good in the strike-infested NBA. Those twins should have stayed for another year, now they got to play on the Philly play-grounds or in Barcelona, Spain. To be blunt, there are high expectations from the KU Jayhawks, this isn’t politics where it’s just the opposite.

Speaking of politics, I must mention that political expression could be extinct in Kansas soon. Ol’ Richard Nixon would have been proud of what happened here last week. Staff members of our Governor, not having anything better to do monitor social media for postings containing his name. They discovered some remarks about the Governor from an 18-year old high school girl visiting Topeka from Kansas City on her tweeter account. The staff members notified the school she came from immediately. Her school principal scolded the poor girl for an hour in his office. He told her to apologize to the Governor and even told her the points she needed to hit upon in her letter. The girl’s family was rightfully shocked over this whole incident. Yet, the Phelps gang can squat on 10th and Gage every week and put up their hateful signs and picket military funerals. Oh yeah, those people are a bunch of lawyers and know how to exploit the legal system to get their message out, but this poor girl can’t tweet tweet. I bet she won’t be visiting Topeka anytime soon. So much for free expression in Kansas and we know that couldn’t happen on our Indian reservations.

Also I’m glad I didn’t go to Los Angeles to do any Black Friday shopping at Walmart. There was a woman using pepper spray to keep the rest of the customers away from some electronic stuff she wanted to buy. Wow, that puts a whole new perspective on shopping. I hope she wasn't a tribal member!

Invocations, boys and medals!

2011-11-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

I went to a meeting in Oklahoma the other day and once it was over, I blazed it back to see my grandson Pat ko shuk give his first public invocation at an event in Fort Leavenworth. He is 11 years old and said the prayer in our language. His prayer is something we have worked on for a good while now and he says it every day. I taught him some pretty tough words and it must be true that young people pick up the words better because he did. He said these are hard words but we hung in there and he picked them up. Using Indian words daily seems to be part of the answer. They asked me to go to the podium to translate what he said, but I first had to tell how each of us Indians have a role to play, some sing, some dance and some do the praying so it is a matter of working together. Rest assured, one person can't do all of that.

The officer in charge gave him three medals for doing the invocation. My wife was worried that he would get stage-fright, but I knew he could do it. It really is unheard of to have a young man of his age give an invocation. When the program was completed, the officer called him up there and gave him the medals. I was so surprised because in this neck of the woods being recognized for using the language is kinda rare and I felt emotion inside. I hope he sticks with it and learns more. My Mother would have been proud! I learned from her and now my grandson is using the words she taught me.

Keo komo Kweh

2011-10-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is a picture I had to post. Her name is Rose Ann Potts or Keo Komo Kweh. She is Grandma to my wife Voncile. By all accounts, she was a hard working woman. I believe she is drying pumpkin or getting ready to cook up some squirrel in this picture, a picture I haven't seen before. I got the picture from Sharon Walder. She had a huge garden and can you imagine the time involved to dry corn and pumpkin? Back then there were no refrigerators so this method had to be used.

I'm cutting back my garden next year because of the time involved and of course I can go to the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, but this lady, along with countless other Indians, never had that option. They had to put in the work if they wanted food that up-coming winter. We would do the same thing if we had to now, but it isn't that hard now, we can always burn it to the grocery store on the corner. She spoke our language, attended our religious ways and was an inspiration to many. We have a much easier life today than these old folks so it makes you feel guilty to a certain extent. This picture was taken during the Great Depression, so it was doubly important to make the gardens produce and do the work necessary to put up the food for later.

The story of a cradle-board!

2011-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

This is our baby Ju Ju, our great-granddaughter. She will capture the moment for all of us now and into the future. I'm amazed to see her and hold here. It's been 11 years since we had a baby in our neck of the woods. I think it will be great to watch her grow up. I think I'm at an age to fully appreciate this. I will get a kick out of watching her Great-Grandma buy her things, probably dresses to dress her up like a little doll. In some ways, she reminds me of Tara and there is no particular reason I feel that way. I held her one day and promised to spoil her and to haul her to games when she starts playing, but maybe by then, I will have to depend on Pat ko shuk to do the driving and the old folks will have to ride in the back.

This baby cradle came from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. We went there one cold winter to visit my brother Larry and during this particular visit we went to check out an Indian store on Franklin Street. This is where we found the cradle-board. This was about 20 years ago. We bought it for Ju Ju's daddy, Nyeh waskeh. They said long time ago the Indian woman would be picking berries in the fields and these cradle-boards would be propped up, leaning on a tree, so the baby could watch the woman work. On occasion, they would fall and the way it was made broke the fall and nobody got hurt. Also the way the baby was bound in the board gave them a sense of security.

Jodie Little Axe put the bead-work on the cradle-board and Tara said she was going to add more. Over the years Nyeh, Hooty, Kek, and Pat ko shuk posed for shots in the cradle-board. It hung on our wall for years and one day we came home from work and Voncile noticed right off the bat it was gone and I figured it was Ju Ju's grandma Juana who had done the dirty deed and sure enough I checked the modern day bible: Facebook and there was Ju Ju in a picture in the cradle-board. She can use it as long as she fits in there, then I imagine it will go back on the wall for the next great-granchild.

Jim Jenkins

2011-10-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

The guy in the picture next to me is Jim Jenkins from Missouri. Jim was there when my friend Martin Jim died in Vietnam in 1971. The picture was taken at Metwe-Shobney Cemetery in the middle of our reservation at a place called "No Man's Land."

While here he, and his wife Cindy, had breakfast with the Hale family at our casino buffet. After that our Indian guide, Roy Hale took him to the memorial wall in our park. The wall has all Potawatomi veterans on it, Jim was fairly impressed with the wall. After that, Roy took him to the Veteran's office to see all the pictures of veterans over the years.

Jim was last here 12 years ago and hasn't changed much at all, but I imagine we looked aged to him. He answered many questions for us. He is a good man and respectful of our people and we enjoy being around him. I'm glad to have met him again and hear of his experiences!

His visit was short, but again memorable to us since we had a common friend and it doesn't hurt to remember.

Who has the answer?

2011-10-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

It’s awful to read about all the shootings taking place! The most recent happened in California where this guy killed 8 people at a beauty salon and it seems no place is immune. It’s easy to say that it can’t happen here, but just a few miles south of where we live, a guy killed his wife, two daughters and his mother-in-law. We can’t say it won’t happen on Indian reservations because less than four years ago, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, a young boy killed several people and then himself. It can’t be insanity because these people plan the whole crazy thing, arm themselves with heavy artillery and carry out this hideous offense. It’s a serious pathological disorder emerging. A disorder that people in our society are using to carry out crimes, but if it isn’t insanity, its damn close. The victims have no time to react. The people in California were just getting their hair done, in Kansas they were in the kitchen making a meal and the kids on the Red Lake Reservation were trying to get in a school day, just normal stuff and not expecting it to be their last day on earth. It’s an indictment on our society. It’s human nature running rampant with other people’s lives. I don't know what the answer is, do you?

Julisa

2011-10-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

On October 8th at 2:10 in the afternoon, my grandson Nyeh Was Keh and his mate, Hattie Fyre had a 7 lb, 6 oz girl. They named her Julisa Marie. For the record, this is my first great-granddaughter. She is a joy to behold. Her great-grandmother shares the same sentiment. I promise to spoil her in the coming years. My grandson Pat ko shuk gave me permission to hold her, but not anybody else. He was the long-time baby in our family, but not now.

It is a beautiful Fall season that she was born in – the leaves are falling and turning colors and it’s turned a lot cooler then the hot season we just came through. We recently completed our Fall Ceremonies here and it was a grand occasion. We have four days or prayer and believe me we need every prayer we can get.

In the coming years Julisa will get her Indian name there and hopefully become a regular member of our religion. She is almost a full-blooded Indian girl but maybe not enough Potawatomi blood to meet our ¼ degree requirement, we will have to wait for the judgement call on that. A few years back, somebody decided to cut my Indian blood in half. I grew up 7/8 and worked in border towns and had to fight because they cussed me for being Indian and all of a sudden one day I woke up a half-breed. Why? I don't know. I protested this action because our law says we go by the 1940 roll and my parents were both 7/8 and they restored my original blood degree. My brother Larry died a half-breed because somebody didn't like our family and wanted to cut our blood. Oh, well that's on them, not us. One can only hope that conduct doesn't carry on to my grandchildren.

If for some reason, she doesn't get our percap, we will share with her as the years go by! She is born into a large family, a bunch from Oklahoma and a bunch from Kansas, so she won’t be hurting for a baby-sitter. I swore up and down that my days of baby-sitting were over but I probably will end up doing some time doing that. It will give us a chance to take her into the city and get her some city clothes and it will give us a chance to dress her up like a little doll that she is. The other day, I bought her a new dress, probably the first of many.

I hold her and can’t believe the years have flown by like this. How does time slip away like that? It wasn’t that long ago that we were holding her daddy and it wasn’t that long ago we were holding her grandmother and auntie. Geez, if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. Oh, well, I thank the Creator for giving Voncile and I this miracle! Oh, did I fail to mention, we love her a bunch!

Patkoshuk

2011-09-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

We are going through a cooling spell here and this is after going through a period of intense heat during July and some of August. The economy is getting scary, the East Coast went through a huge storm, the South is also getting over a huge rain-fall and on the local front, my Grandson, Patkoshuk, is experiencing his11th birthday today. We had a party for him last night in our yard. I made sure it was all mowed, while my wife and girls fixed up a meal. We had fried-bread, soup and of course ice cream and cake. I was surpised by the large turnout. I guess I better work on some more benches for the yard. He was happy and that is the most important thing. He is my partner and hopefully he will take care of me when I get older.

I was surprised by fried-bread being on the menu, since my girl had a stand at the Allied Tribes Pow-Wow over the weekend. We helped out as much as we could. Those stands are a lot of work. She was raising money for a youth group called Gen X. Juana, as I call her, is very much underappreciated in what she does for the kids, but that is to be expected in this area. When I was young we had no resources like that, so any activities is good for kids. Too bad all of our communities don't have more resources like her!

All is not fun and games!

2011-08-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

I watched the sad events of the Cody Baker funeral unfold last week from a distance. He was killed August 3 in Warduk province in east central Afghanistan. I didn’t know the young man and he didn’t know me, but I felt the grief his family was experiencing, and all of it brought back a flood of memories for me. There was a young man, almost the same age as Cody Baker, named Martin Jim, Jr. who died in Vietnam in 1971 and by anybody’s calculations that was a long time ago.

They both were young, both died from explosives, one in Vietnam and the other in Afghanistan, thousands of miles from the streets of Holton, Kansas and the reservation of the Potawatomis. I don’t remember anybody else dying from war during this span of 1971 to the present time. I could be wrong though. Hopefully, it will be another 40 years before it happens again.

Allow me to tell you about my time with Martin Jim. Martin grew up on the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Reservation. We knew each other as we grew up, but for the most part we attended different schools until high school where we became the best of friends. He was like a brother to me. Later I named my daughter after him. After school and before, some of the guys from the reservation joined the service and usually ended up in Vietnam. It was called a conflict. In our circle of friends, my brother Larry joined the Army, Vernon Yazzie joined the Marines and Martin Jim joined the Army. They spent their senior trips in Vietnam. All of these guys, along with several other veterans from that conflict, are gone now.

It wasn’t a good story to tell: After eight days in Vietnam, Martin Jim was killed by a booby trap. Many years later, a man from Missouri came to the reservation and told of the circumstances of Martin Jim's death. Jim Jenkins, who lives in Missouri now, served in the same unit. He said Martin was sent out on point, and Jenkins said this usually didn't happen with new soldiers. And there were booby traps set by the Americans, and Martin walked into one of these. Jim Jenkins was walking three men back, and the bomb killed Martin Jim and badly wounded the man in front of him. These same circumstances happened to another unit close by. It was a deadly accident of war, but that was little consolation to his friends and family.

In 2009, a man named Don Lowell told about his experience with Martin Jim. He said: “Martin was truly an Airborne Infantry Soldier! I knew that Martin was a special warrior when I first met him. Martin had no fear. Martin was willing to do what he believed was right and honorable, with no concern or respect for his own well being. Vietnam was a tough place. Those of us that survived were very fortunate and we never forgot and never will forget those who willingly paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy in this Nation. There is a quote that I once heard. I don't know the author. However, it says "For those who have fought for it, Freedom has a taste the protected will never know".”

Life does have some strange twists as evidenced by Jim Jenkins and Don Lovell walking into the lives of the Potawatomi many years after the death of Martin Jim and telling some of the story.

Cody Baker died the same way, but the bombs were set by the enemy. I imagine Cody Baker was much the same as these guys. They wanted to get out and see the world and for a short time they did get to experience a different life, but in the case of Cody Baker and Martin Jim they will never get to experience the trial and tribulations or joy of children, and grandchildren or grow old, but if it’s any consolation, they also won’t have to live and relive the war experience over and over, as many combat veterans have done. Sadly, war does have consequences and after-affects.

I’m sure the funeral, the grief and all the events were just a blur for the family because that’s the way it was when Martin Jim died. It made me feel good to see the recognition Cody Baker received from the community and all the good words from his friends and family - all of that is well deserved. An anonymous author once wrote that people will always live if you remember them.

As I said the family didn’t know me. I wanted to go to the funeral home and sign the book, but sometimes it’s better for guys like me to remain in the background, because we know that words in times like this will never suffice!

Burning hot July and a mild August on the Rez!

2011-08-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

Around here August turned mild and it rained, which didn't draw any complaints, in light of the record-breaking heat wave of July. This is rare, usually it's burning hot in August, not July. Global warming, I guess.

Besides the change in the weather, the economic picture changed for some. Yes we do have Wall Street watchers here and it's interesting to see the reactions when the market goes for a roller-coaster ride. I personally don't pay attention to any of it. I use the head-in-the sand approach, you know kinda like our esteemed Washington D.C. politicians do! In the past Indians only survived and when they got old, they could only rely on a small social security check and/or a rental check from their land. It wasn't an easy life! Today, there are jobs, 401 Ks, per-caps and an occasional jackpot to get Indians by. This isn't true for all tribal members, but it is so for those who work for the tribe. In that regard, the casino has changed the economic landscape of our tribe. That is a positive!

We missed the Potawatomi Gathering in Michigan this year. I wasn't up to the 800 mile drive, it is a little too much anymore. Like I always say, I'm not the star of the show, so I'm sure it went on without me just fine. I try to limit my excursions off the rez and do venture off once in awhile to see how the world has changed and to read a different newspaper. I did get a lot of things done around here though.

During past Gathering trips, my corn would have time to get hard in the field, but I was able to get a decent amount this year and that's because I stayed. Speaking of back then, those old Indians too depended heavily on their gardens. They dried corn and that is no easy task, along with pumpkin. If they didn't Winter would be hard. There was no time to be lazy if you wanted to eat. Today we have gardens, but not to the extent they had back a few short years ago. As I said, we don't depend on it like they did because the proverbial store is right on the corner. I couldn't imagine having to dry all that corn they did or pumpkins, beans or put up bushels of potatoes and put them away into make-shift cellars. People helped each other then, so it might not have been as hard but it would still be time consuming.

At this point in the Summer, most of the crops are in for small-time gardeners such as myself, but I'm fairly satisfied with the production cycle this year. I thought the heat would burn it up and it did on some of it but overall I did alright. Another good thing with staying home was I didn't have to come home to an overgrown yard and speaking of the yard - mine stayed green all summer despite the heat spell we endured. I mow my own yard and will as long as I'm able!

Every year we have a prayer service for our kids going back to school so they will have a good productive time learning and a safe journey on that yellow bus, but we are in a dilemma now. With the a/c thiefs having their way, they put up a gate with a lock at the entrance of our prayer house and we don't have a key to get in now. We will just have to wait, I guess!

Grandma Susie

2011-08-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

Allow me to jog down memory lane for a brief moment. I wanted to write a few words about an older woman that once was in our lives many years ago when we were much younger. Her name was Susie Masquat, but we called her Grandma Susie. She lived about a mile from our home. My Mother would take us along and we would walk over to her house (now we act like a mile-walk is torture) and they would visit in the Potawatomi language they knew and it sounded so easy for them. My Mother said Grandma Susie would tell her about old Potawatomi stories in the Potawatomi language. Later when my Mother was older, I asked what stories did you talk about, but she had forgotten. I should have asked a whole lot sooner than that! Wouldn't that been something to preserve?

Grandma Susie would walk back to our house with us. I can still see her and my Mother walking down that dusty road and can you imagine the whole slug of kids walking along side them. Oh, there was no black-top roads back then. She would stay with us for a night or two. One time she cooked up some “pugna,” a fried corn cake we have in our tribe when the corn is ready. When she made it the first time, we didn’t really like it since we were accustomed to boarding school food or whatever, but we were raised not to say we didn’t like any food. Poor people eat what is front of them and not complain, so we told her we liked it and she made us another batch. That was then, now we can eat it till the belly can’t take anymore.

She would go with us when we went swimming in the creek south of our house and would swim too. She was old then but she could walk a bunch and swim and cook. She also was also an accomplished dancer at local pow-wows and she wasn't a bit shy! We thought so much of her and really did look forward to seeing her. Our times together were memorable. I can still hear my brothers and sisters holloring "Grandma Susie is here, Grandma Susie is here."

Now the old house Grandma Susie lived in is gone,engulfed by weeds and undergrowth. She too is gone and only then did we find out she wasn’t really our grandmother and there was some disillusionment, but that fact never took away the good times of being around her.

Somebody is watching over my brother!

2011-07-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this picture that appeared in the Minneapolis newspaper awhile back. It was taken by an amateur photographer Frank Glick at 6:00 am on June 25, 2011. The Eagle landed on the headstone of a World War II veteran at Fort Snelling Military Cemetery. There was an article written by the Star Tribune mentioning this veteran and his accomplishments and said the Eagle in some cultures is considered a symbol of good luck. I don't know which culture they were talking about, but the Eagle is considered the King of the birds in ours and has a powerful presence no matter where it goes and is a majestic bird.

It made me feel good and and sad to see this perfect picture. I thought: a kno (eagle) is watching over my brother Larry's final resting place and that is good. He died in 2007 of health complications, gone but never forgotten. He too, is buried in Fort Snelling Military Cemetery, by his choice not mine. In fact, I miss him every day, I miss his phone calls, emails, his commentaries, and watching him get frustrated over his golf game when we played in our annual golf outings. But I was lucky too, I got to be with him for a good number of years through thick and thin and nothing ever will take away the memories, except when I go join him.

The Effects of Heat!

2011-07-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, it’s summer time and the weather in Kansas does historically get a bit hot, but this reservation and the State of Kansas have endured a heat wave of epic proportions. Two days in a row, it hit 106 degrees – the hottest days on record since 1906. For the last 10 days it got over 100 degrees and we might get a break of a couple of days in the mid-90s then it suppose to get back to 100-104 degree area again. I guess it could be worse, we could be living in Texas or Oklahoma.

It’s so hot that the grass has lost it ambition to grow, gardens are burning up, the pools are getting a work-out, the a/c units are working over-time, some people find it too hot to go to work , and people are dying from heat exhaustion, which may explain why we have a gang of air-conditioning unit thieves hitting reservation churches, sometimes twice – the heat made them do it. They are a brave bunch to steal these big units, load them on trucks and drive away on our reservation roads. Brave or stupid! The people here are insulted over these blatant acts. It’s like they are saying “we’re going to come to your house and take what we want and you can’t do anything about it.”

It’s hard to say why this is happening. This gang may need to subsidize a drug, booze and/or a prescription drug habit. Originally, we thought they were after the copper in the units, but after looking at the insides of a unit there isn’t much there, so the resale value has to come into play. Thievin is one thing, but buying stolen goods is wrong too. Maybe it’s somebody who has a grudge against the Tribe! Maybe at some point they were fired or denied a service, it could be something like that because those a/c units have been here for years and nobody has bothered our churches at all before this outbreak. But surely they can’t have a grudge against the institution of a prayer house, after all atonement does come for all. Stealing from the churches is not good for their ultimate judgement day in another life or the well-being of church members in this life. The Tribe has offered a $5,000 reward for these yahoos and there is no honor among thieves so the snitching will happen soon enough.

Who really knows what motivates a spree like this? Maybe they just want a fine air-conditioning unit to keep their impressionable kids and knowing wife cool during these hot summer months. Maybe they will catch them, maybe not, but this has to go down as hard times for the reservation churches. They have a right to feel wronged – after all they’ve been here for years and prayed for all and, and never figuring they would be targets for lowly people like this bunch. Damn, hopefully they don't live amongst us!

Summer Basketball

2011-07-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

It was 106 degrees on Saturday and 102 on Sunday and working outside was a limited endeavor, so we went to watch my grandson Hooty play in the Sunflower Games in Topeka. They won a few games and ended up taking third place in the games. I like watching basketball, although that wasn't always true. I was always a die-hard KU basketball fan, but that was on the tube, and start watching them when Ted Owens coached there and that was years ago. I start watching local basketball when my granddaughter Tara played in high school and junior college. We went overboard and made almost every game. Hooty likes the game and now plays on a summer-league team coached by Charles Nez. The team likes to run, run and run some more. There is so much potential in these Indian boys. They have some long-distance games scheduled and a tournament in Texas that I will try to go to, if my schedule allows. I'm proud of Hooty and want to see him happy playing sports!

Garden Update

2011-07-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

A facebook friend asked me to print some pictures of my garden, so I will oblige. This is a picture of my corn that I took from the road. In the background is my barn, where I have my workshop and the upper part serves as storage and believe me my daughters have stored their stuff in there for years. I might have to charge storage fees to supplement old-age funds, but we all know that won't happen. I had a weather vane on top of the barn but the big birds attacked it and destroyed it. I may replace it in time!

Also in the background is my daughters trailer and my Purple-Martin birdhouses. My corn did come up spotty but what did come up looks fairly decent in my opinion. I suppose I could say "in retrospect, I should have been a poet or a farmer." This is the best corn I've had in years. We are having a heat spell, but corn does well in this kind of weather. When the rest of us are crying around for water and air-conditioning, corn goes on and on. My cucumbers, tomatoes, and tators have done well also. I have no complaints and I'm satisfied with whatever I get out of my humble garden. We've lived in our house for 34 years and part of my contract with my wife is that I take care of the yard. In fact, here is a picture with a view of my yard and garden in the distance. I enjoy planting, growing and seeing if I can improve my yard every year. When I get abit older, maybe I can watch my grandchildren do all the work I do now and I can sit under a shade tree and tell lies to some innocent visitor!

Time away from the Reservation!

2011-06-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

I took off a few days of vacation time last week and made my way into the Canadian wilderness to visit my sister-in-law, Doris Zyganiak and her husband Alex. She has laid a guilt trip on us to come visit her and she’s right since the last time we were there, eight years have passed and she has made numerous trips here. But first of all, I went into fear mode, and then I had nightmares, waking up in a cold sweat dreaming that my garden/flowers would be overrun with weeds and my yard would look like a jungle upon my return. It took me three days just to get over those thoughts and nightmares, to say nothing about the guilt of not doing my daily work routine, but that lazy inner self emerged and I was alright for the remaining days.

We arrived in Buffalo, New York where my sister-in-law picked us up and we made a stop for food at a little dive. I read a local paper that said Creedance Clearwater Revival was playing a free concert in a local park on the following Tuesday. Damn life got harder for CC Revival after the break-up with John Fogerty. Some divorces are gruesome. After this, we crossed the border. I fully expected to get shook down and be treated badly. I fully expected to get our bags to be checked out good, after all we are Indians and they might think we were smuggling contraband cigarettes into the country, but we were waved on through. Damn, I was surprised because when I fly I get semi-fondled every time because I had a knee replacement that sets off all the bells and whistles and a guy in a cheap blue suit is thinking "terrorist" and sees me as a chance for some kind of fame. But, the simple gesture of being waved through the check-point made me feel better about mankind.

We did the tourist thing and looked at the Falls and took pictures. Many of the houses had clothes lines, whereas in the USA that is kinda rare. Later in Toronto, we did the bus tour thing and it was interesting to see the people, hear the commentary about different areas of the city and its landmarks. The bus took us by the Indian Center there and a couple of effeminate types waved at us in a dainty kind of way and although the song “I’m in love” by Wilson Pickett played in the background, I remained focused and acted like they weren’t there - what could I do? We later took a boat ride and seen the Toronto skyline in the distance and oh, we didn’t get sea-sick. If the opportunity ever presents itself again, I will take the bus tour of a city to learn more about its origins. You never know it might be an educational experience.

I played a round of golf the next day on a local course, a beautiful course with a lot of water and trees lining the fairways – a tough, tough course. I had bad shots at times, a rusty guy since I hadn’t played in 15 months but excuses come dime a dozen. My irons were fair and my short game was horrible, which is usually the case in long lay-offs from golf. I hit the sand pile twice and got out both times in one shot. I practiced that at my home 20, so it paid off on this day. Let me tell you, no matter how bad my game was, I enjoyed the day. After it was all said and done, I was tired from playing and after filling my belly, I went to bed fairly early, but now I’m ready to play our course.

On most “vacations” the days go by fast, but I don’t think it was that way this time. I enjoyed seeing the area, playing golf, played the slots to no avail and got to hear my grandson talk about the fish he caught on a boat trip on Three Mile Island. I have the pictures of him holding a 5 pound bass hanging in my workshop - a place where I ponder the mysteries of life and do occasional woodworking. Seeing him happy like that is what they mean by the term “priceless.” I enjoyed staying at my sister-in-laws house by the water, getting up early and watching the morning sun hit the bay, eating the fine meals provided and the time off. And God was willing and the da creek didn’t rise, so we made it home. It was a helluva ride!

2011 Prairie Band Potawatomi Pow-Wow Pictures!

2011-06-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Pow-Wow is over for this year and goes down in the books as another successful event. I don't know how many dancers and drum groups there was, but it was a bunch. They come to our reservation from all over the United States. I don't know if its cause we are so friendly on this reservation or its our top-of-the-line park. It could be that, but I suspect it's the prize money that draws them. What does it matter though and I have a good time going there to watch.
I like watching the dancers -mainly because I can appreciate good dancing since I can't at all, I especially like watching the fancy dancers. Those guys have to be in shape and are probably ex-jocks since it takes a lot to do that dance. I also like sitting around visiting with people and occasionally I take a picture of people walking by. I did get a copy of a couple of these pictures from others. We don't make many pow-wows. My grandson Pat ko Shuk likes to dance. He enjoys pow-wows especially since he can work his Misho for cash for this and that. Another great aspect of pow-wows is testing the food and the fried bread, which is bad for us Indians, has to be eaten. We never want to insult our cooks. Also we have to buy a t-shirt to prove we was there. Most people don't give a damn if we're there or not, but the t-shirt validiates our presence.

Pat Ko Shuk

Wallace Coffey. He's an battle tested politician and now does the pow-wow circuit and tells jokes as the MC. Indians like to steal other jokes when we can and pass them off as our own.

Fancy Dancers

Derek Otero in some type of Indian pose

Martie Ann Mitchell in full pow-wow pose

Tug Wamego and Gubba Hale

My brother Eddie Joe and some young Potawatomi girl named Cham

A basketball story for the ages!

2011-06-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Let me swerve off into the sports world for a moment. The National Basketball Association looks like they will have a labor dispute that could affect the 2011-12 season. The industry is making $4 billion a year and the player average salary is $5 million a year. When is enough enough??? They can join the ranks of greedy football and baseball players, but it isn’t limited to the pros. Some say some college players take a pay-cut when they turn pro, could that be true? Let’s look around:

Ohio State could be looking at a death sentence (remember SMU)in football for player trades. They traded OSU championship memorabilia for free tattoos, drinks and heaven knows what else. The coach, loved by everybody in Ohio, became a sacrificial lamb was fired and the university is praying that is good enough to escape SMU treatment. He claimed no knowledge of all this stuff going on under his watch, but we know winning comes first and he looked the other way. Oh, those football players pocketed very little from these transactions, whereas the beloved coach received $3.5 million a year. Most of these guys who go to schools like Ohio State have to be damn good football players and it is an unacceptable standard to be less. Most are coming from poverty-stricken backgrounds and all of a sudden they are wearing fine threads, sporting expensive jewelry, drive fine vehicles and have apartments off campus. Rest assured their mamas who might work at McDonalds, don’t send that kind of cash to them. One national writer commented on this affair: “players skirt the rules, coaches skirt the truth, and the NCAA tries to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun. It’s not pretty.” Another said the Ohio State coach cut corners and gamed the system when nobody was looking. “Either a rule is a rule, or it’s not,” said the writer.

But don’t think for a New York second that it’s limited to Ohio State. I read an article about Alabama football players driving SUVs, but Alabama said their rivals were jealous of the team and was making trouble for them. Cam Newton’s daddy was trying to get a six-figure payment from Mississippi State, but he went to Auburn instead. Maybe Auburn paid more, but don’t think for that new jersey second, that his daddy invented an idea like that. It just might go with the territory. Southern Cal had Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo and their stories are similar and it goes on and on….

Locally, a KU basketball player got in the news with some irregularities, but we know that was a lie. Kansas State provided new threads to the players and we know that’s true. Those farmers are the same as Ohio State, but I imagine the clothing line is a little more stylish in Columbus than the lil apple.

Stuff like that happens, my friend! These universities make a bundle of money off these jocks and maybe they ought give them a little more than the normal stipend, but that will never be enough because they got it into their heads they are going to turn pro any second and make millions, which would get their mamas out of McDonalds, so they don’t really give a damn what happens to the U. The coaches have to win or it’s hit the road Jack. The alumni expect a winning program or they won’t donate their extra cash they got laying around. Maybe the answer is blowin in the wind, but don’t expect to catch it anytime soon.

Meeks Jackson

2011-06-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

In the early morning hours of May 29, 2011, most people were asleep and outside it was pouring rain and the thunder roared like an oncoming train, but inside a Topeka hospital the circumstances were much different. The life of Meeks Jackson slowly slipped away but she was surrounded by the people she had influenced in her life and that had to mean something to her, some way, somehow! She was 88 years old.

I suppose in the grand scheme of life and history, her role will be minimized, but a closer examination has to be done before a conclusion like that is reached. I imagine we make suppositions like that all the time and it is a fact that it’s the same everywhere - some people make a difference, most don’t or some choose indifference and then life is soon over, no matter what. For me, you have to really understand the dynamics of a reservation to fully understand the loss of a tribal member of her magnitude.

In my day, I was heavily influenced by three people: Meeks, Maynard Potts and my Mother. All three are gone now. Again just as when we lost Maynard and Mom, the death of Meeks has to go down as a tremendous loss. All three of these old folks could have kept their knowledge of our ways to themselves but they didn’t. They shared their stories and it was up to us to listen. I have talked and written about Maynard and my Mother’s contributions and now I will relay some of Meeks work:

Meeks meant many things to many people and here is some commentary:

Venita Chenault said "she was indeed one of our most valued elders and both generous and patient with those who were learning.....

My Texas cousin Dianna Payne said “I will always remember Meeks and her kindness and patience. She never made me feel dumb or ashamed for not knowing traditions and was always willing to answer questions and share. She taught me to make traditional clothes so a part of her teaching will continue thru me in that way, and for that I am very thankful.

Robert Lara said “She was a treasure to us all and loved by us all. I remember her and my Grandmother talking Potawatomi and sewing all the time when I was little. I always felt safe and at home at Koya's house. She treated me so good my whole life and told me to do good for myself. I am trying my best. And I have her and all our other elders to thank. Megwetch!”

Ruta Mendez also commented on her time with Meeks “ She always reminded me of my Grandma Blanche and I know they were family also. So soft spoken and caring. My son, Gabes, worked at the Language Dept for 2 summers on youth program. Gabes really enjoyed working with Meeks and he learned a lot from her

And for some it was lighter moments with Meeks that they remembered as noted by Nathan Hale when he said “I think what I will remember the most is her humor....I loved joking around with her."

Joan Rebar told of some of her early life: “Meeks, Marjorie Wapp, Alberta Marshno used to all ride a horse to Sonny Brook (an old one-room school house) and they would sleigh ride together and do everything together because they were all within months of being the same age and live close. Mother is the oldest and Alberta was the youngest. We both have good memories of Meeks.”

Meeks believed in Potawatomi language and the value it has. I sat there with her and my mother for hours at a time listening to them talk the Indian language with each other. I thought "they make it sound so easy." Eventually I learned some of their words. I’m no fluent speaker, but if those two, along with Maynard, didn’t feel like telling me some of their beautiful language the loss would have been mine. My brother Eddie and I chose to learn prayer words from them, knowing we didn’t have time to learn more. We kept the scope narrow. We teach our kids and grandkids the words we learned from them. Maybe the language will be chumped off and go by the wayside, but why? Those old people believed in what they were doing and it's our faults for not learning sooner, now the opportunities are fast slipping by. Nowadays, some people value language and others couldn’t care less, but that is modern day life.

Nonetheless, Meeks wanted the language to continue. Now it's up to all her pupils to carry some of it on. If they do, it only cements her legacy. Will they? Only time will tell. If it doesn’t work out like that, we will still remember her for all the positive she brought to this patch of earth called the Potawatomi Reservation.

One Indian's Weekend!

2011-05-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Boy, was this a busy weekend for me. On Saturday, I went to the Farmers Market early and loaded up on supplies for the week, hit some garage sales and went home to do some work. In this order, I did the following chores:

I have some building project orders to fill, but first of all, I have to find my tools. I try and I try but I can’t seem to get my work-shop area cleaned up and it doesn’t help when my two daughters throw stuff in there. I need to build a shed just for that valuable item that needs storage for years at a time. Well I tried to get some of that in order and made some progress. I mowed a bit. I had to trade in my mower because the other was a lemon from the start, but this mower does well. Pushing a mower is fine and good but my yard is way too big for that and besides I have other things to do beside mowing for hours at a time.

I also did my best imitation of a being a plumber! I have a sink in my back bathroom that decided to start leaking water all over. To be truthful, I start shaking when I know plumbing work has to be done. It took me awhile but I did get the water stopped, I replaced some of the pipes and (crossing my fingers) and it hasn’t leaked yet. It took me a lifetime, but I’m a jack of all trades and a master of none. I went to Horton on Saturday night and talked for a supper. Sometimes people ask me to help in that area, but most of the time my services are no longer needed.

While there, we had a storm hit our reservation. With hail the size of golf balls breaking windows and skylights, I fully expected to see my garden flattened out but for some strange reason, it was spared and I'm sure thankful for that. My corn also started to come up the next day! I remember a good number of years ago, my garden was coming up great and the hail hit and tore up my garden. I felt bad about this, but replanted and I’m glad I didn’t have to do that this year.

On Sunday, I did more work on my work area and the sun came out and heated up good to the point where I was able to finish my mowing. At one break my daughter gave me a hair-cut. You have to look right mowing your yard, right? Once I finished my mowing-work, I drove over to my sister’s house and help put up a purple-martin house I build for her last winter. It took about 25 minutes for me and my nephews to get it set in the ground. I wanted to get it up because when I was mowing I noticed the Purple Martins came back on Saturday. Seeing those pretty birds makes me want to build more bird houses in my back yard. Another reason I wanted to get my sisters bird house up is once these birds come to that house, they will return every year. The Purple Martin can eat 2,000 mosquitoes a day.

By that time I was pretty worn out. That’s how one Indian spends his weekend!

Tara and Graduation!

2011-05-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

Our granddaughter Tara graduated with a AA degree from Haskell the 13th of May. It has been a long journey for her or so it seems to me. She started out at KCK, a junior college on a basketball scholarship, but things never worked out there for her and she transferred to Haskell and the environment seems to suit her better. I wanted her to stay in Kansas City but sometimes a controlling grandparent needs to step aside and I did.
As we normally do, we had a large group of family and friends at the ceremony. We sat and listened to the speeches and the whole thing took about an hour. I shed no tears but it came close when they announced Tara’s name and she walked across the stage. I thought about when she was a baby, I took a picture with her and she had a hat on with the words “Grandpa’s pride and joy.” (My daughter called her PJ for pride and joy). She was the first grandchild to come through our home doors and to say we spoiled her would be an understatement. My sister, Sandy, later told me “everything was Tara this and Tara that” and how she had to look at every picture and to hear every baby move. I suppose it was out of hand. I guess I was guilty of that. We took her everywhere and boy was she a headstrong kid. I think she was not only spoiled but stubborn.

Over the years we had more grandchildren come along and some visited our house and never moved out, kinda like Tara did, but that was alright too. I suppose it caused some hard feelings because we showed her that favoritism, but we spread out the necessary cash to sooth those feelings and today it’s not too bad. I suppose those tears will always almost fall down over that high cheekbones of mine when my other grandchildren graduate because I will remember all those special times I shared with them over the years. I did love them equally. And I’m damn glad I lived to see these occasions.

Sometimes you have to reprint something for others to know!

2011-05-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained,
"We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind.

They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -

wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room.

And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.

They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time

they had a drink of water.

They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen,

and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked

instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.

And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

Recollections of a baseball star!

2011-05-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

Harmon Killebrew died today at age 74. If you hadn’t heard of him, he was a basher of the baseball in the late 50s and 60s, way before the steroid era. He knocked out 573 home runs in his 22 year career, and some went record distances. In fact, he had 8 seasons of hitting out 40 or more home-runs, second only to the bambino: Babe Ruth. He played alongside Tony Olivia, Zoila Versailles, Bobby Allison and Mudcat Grant.

Killebrew did it right, he didn’t cheat like the steroid abusers. The cheaters might have all the home-run records, but I doubt if any will ever make the Hall of Fame. Those guys have screwed up baseball for a long time.

Killebrew was a class act both on the field and off. How would I know? You might be wondering that about now! Well when we were kids during those years when Killebrew was in his hey -day, along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Henry Aaron, to name a few. We read about them in newspapers and magazines, listen to them on the radio (one year I listened to over 100 baseball games), but we never went to any games – too damn poor for that. In fact, we rarely left the reservation. We collected the baseball cards and it was too bad we didn’t have enough foresight to save them in some shoe box in our attic. Hell, we woulda had some walking around change in retirement.

My dearly departed brother Larry lived in the Twin Cities and he went to a baseball card show there one time and got two signed baseballs from Harmon Killebrew, one for him and one for me. Larry said he was a class act. I still have that baseball. I regret that I didn’t get to shake hands with him too. Oh, well thanks for the memories Larry and Harmon.

Sunday Golf!

2011-05-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, our golf course had its grand opening and the feature event was a “skins game” between the teams of former KU basketball coach Roy Williams and Randy Towner and current KU coach Bill Self and Notah Begay, the course designer. I wanted to go and I didn’t. In a way, I was still mad KU didn't get into the final four this year and Roy left town on the red eye out of Lawrence eight years back, but I decided to forget the past mostly because my grandson wanted me to watch him dance with the Royal Valley Singers and Dancers.

With those intentions in mind, I went to watch and right off I was verbally assualted by a couple of tribal members. They didn’t ask how I was or to go to hell but they asked why I was there. I guess they must perceive themselves as the new Potawatomi elites. I always went to our functions here on the reservation and never had to explain why I was there, but it is stupid stuff I have to deal with at times. With not much choice, I shook those words off and concentrated on better things like watching my grandson dance and listen to the speeches. And I visited with other tribal members who weren’t like those two and started to enjoy the day again.

At first I was only going to watch them tee off on the first tee and go home and do some yard-work, but my grandson wanted to watch the match so I decided to do the walk. I did my best Forrest Gump imitation standing there watching them t-off and Channel 27 had a shot of Roy Williams teeing-off, the camera panned the crowd and that folks is how I got on the evening news and where else but on an Indian reservation could that have happened?

I normally get a cart when I get on the course and kinda wondered if I could walk the nine since it is about three miles or so, but I did. I enjoyed watching Self and Williams along with Notah Begay and Randy Towner. Let me tell you, they are excellent golfers. I'm glad I went. My grandson Pat ko shuk and some other kids got a free shirt from Notah Begay. The shirts were provided by his sponsor. The kids were also interviewed by some television station but I haven’t seen the clip yet. The kids, of course, didn’t know which station it was.

Now remember now I said I forgot the past, so I shook hands with Roy Williams as he walked by and he said “I saw you on tv in my room at the casino.’ They have a short piece about the tribe on the television there and in that film clip I talked a little about the history of our tribe. I thought damn he picked me out of this crowd. That exchange told me he was a people person who can remember names, faces and events and bring them up in a later conversation, which also indicates to me he has a top-of-the line personality. He’s probably an asset to North Carolina in fund-raising too because of this trait.

Plus after the match he took pictures with my grandson and his friends. So did Bill Self. That is great public relations and for the people who watched this event will have some memories to last for a little while.

Strange stories, Oprah and Gardens.

2011-05-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

As sordid stories go: There was this woman in Florida who caused a 2-vehicle wreck because she was shaving her bikini area while driving. She was on her way to a date and wanted to be ready for the visit. The reporter said while performing this extremely personal grooming ritual, she asked her ex-husband to steer the wheel. I’m sorry I had to report on this, but it shows how crazy some people are in this great land. Apparently there are things besides drinking that don't mix with driving.

A worst story was this 17 year old kid in Pittsburgh who came across a 58 year man, who just had a heart-attack and was slumped over his steering wheel. He was returning home after a late baseball game. The kid took his billfold and rolled him out of the car and stole it. The fan later died. I guess the moral of the story is there was no compassion in Pennsylvania on that particular night.

I get off work at 4:30 and I try and watch the end of Oprah, mostly because my wife likes to watch the show. Well anyway, Oprah has these big giveaways on occasion and the people jump up and down and cry and carry on, which is good for them. But this one show they had all these black people who participated in the Freedom Riders movement – a fight for the rights of blacks in the early 1960s. It was not an easy time for black people, many died and others were the victims of senseless violence because they stood up for equality. It was a good show to highlight some of these folks contributions, but it was strange too. Oprah didn’t have any gifts for these old civil rights veterans. Damn, I thought these are the ones who deserve a little bit, but they didnt' make the give-away happiness.

With the help of my two grandsons, Patkoshuk and Nyeh Was sheh and Nicki, I planted 17 rows of corn, 6 tomatoes; 2 peppers and 14 hills of cucumber, plus I have 2 1/2 rows of tators coming up along with onions and guess what? The rains came the very next morning. Boy it sure makes it easier on me when my grandsons step up to the plate and help – but I hope this isn’t construed as breaking child labor laws. I have a few more things to plant, but I’m getting close to being set for this year’s garden. Am I hoping for a good crop? In a word, yes!

The start of a new season

2011-05-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

I’m finally getting back to some normalcy. After my surgery, it seemed like I couldn’t get with it and some of my yard work and gardening suffered. Maybe as you get older, it takes longer to bounce back, but I feel I’m 90% better now and I truly appreciate all the concern. I don’t like that kind of attention so I will try to stay healthy as possible and if that means not ever going to the doctor then so be it.

I was able to do some yard work this weekend such as mowing and some clearing and I tilled my garden yesterday. My tators (I abbreviate this cause I’m afraid I might not spell it right like Dan Quale) are growing good, along with my onions. This week I will plant my corn. This old Indian lady told me once to plant corn on May 10th, but my trusty farmer’s almanac says May 3 and 4th is a good time, so I will try that, plus you have to plant when it is dry and the most important thing is to get it into the ground before the rains come. I will also plant some more stuff the next couple of days, green beans, squash and the Metwe favorite: watermelon. I almost cut back on my garden, but now I’m glad I didn’t. I was pretty tired after this yard-work, but damn I’m glad I don’t have to depend on others to do my work for me. I hope I don’t reach that stage.

Speaking of yard work, gasoline will be pricey this summer! Can you imagine what it will cost people who make a living mowing? It, again, will be the consumer who will absorb the cost of this national nightmare.

My grandson Pat ko shuk is playing soccer with a team in Holton and I try and catch most of the games, but sometimes I have other obligations. He likes to play and wants to get into tackle football. My wife is adamant about not letting him play but he keeps at her so it will be worth watching to see who wins out. She saw me suffer for years with knee problems and go through three knee operations , which is the main reason she don’t want the boy to play the game. I would let him play, but I’m leery too. He will play though because I see some determination and desire and that oughta count for something.

Pow-Wow season is upon us with ours coming up in June. I will be there provided my yard is mowed first. I go and look at the stands, but hardly buy anything except food. Also in the summer, the Farmers Market opens in Topeka and we make a point to go buy this and that and this works for us until our crops come in. The Gathering is in Michigan this year, but I don’t think we will go – the drive is much too long. A few years ago, it was no big deal, not now though. I went to the Senior Site today for lunch and this guy said he was looking for somebody to help drive to Portland, Oregon. I told him “going to Shawnee County is too much for me anymore.”

Oil prices, oil companies and tornadoes!

2011-04-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

While the average person is paying a big chunk of take-home pay for gas, the big companies like Exxon Mobile are raking in a first quarter profit of $10.7 billion (yes that is billion not million). Big business has the consumer bent so far over that oil barrel that it’s best just to whimper and take it. It doesn’t seem worthwhile to complain to the local congressman or the President. The first bunch have their heads buried so deep in the sand fighting inner demons. And the Prez is mired in some more sand trying to prove his citizenship to “carnival barkers,” so it’s pointless to say anything to them and when was the last time they did anything worthwhile? This mass rape will continue until the big executives get enough to live on, but that day of satisfaction may never come, so pay at the pumps and take it, but it is all a crying shame for what is happening to the American people.

And there are still some companies who let you pump the gas first and then pay for it, but that will soon end because of so many drive-offs. Here at our local station, we've had to pay first for a long time, so we must be a progressive lot. Also you better get some surveillance gear because people are getting brave and stealing gas by siphoning it out of their neighbors cars and trucks. If nothing else get a locking gas cap. It used to be copper, now its gas thievery by the big companies or your neighbors.

But yet while the economy is in shambles and congress in a tizzy over spending money, the disaster of 174 tornadoes touching down in the Deep South, killing over 280 people, has occurred. That will be a big price-tag for the federal government, who have little choice but to fund it because they can’t turn its back on its own people. It seem like Mother Nature is telling us to rebuild our homelands and maybe be an isolationist for a little while anyway. That notion says rebuild our infrastructure, and in the process why not create some decent paying jobs. We shouldn't have some local congress-person jumping up and down because McDonalds had a job fair, because those people slinging those hamburgers don't get the same pay as that congress-person. Also, maybe we should stop sending so much foreign aid for their disasters and save some for the home front.

This also brings to light that natural disasters have happened regularly going back to Katrina to the oil spill and a whole bunch of other disasters that it seems better to factor in these cost for the yearly budget. Because it sure don’t seem like they are going to end anytime soon. If there was one consolation in the South, one huge tornado missed Alabama’s football stadium by only a half-mile, so I guess ol Bear Bryant was doing some intervention work to save it, but it's too bad we don't have more help in that area.

Chaske Spencer

2011-04-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

Normally when the tribe brings in a speaker they make the customary appearance, talk for about an hour, glad-hand a bit, and away they go into the sunset. That’s just the way it is! So when Chaske Spencer came here, he did give a presentation, but stayed around and took the time to visit people which certainly made it more memorable for people on the reservation. He also posed for a bunch of pictures and signed autographs for the old and the young.

Being a community-based person, I usually try and make most presentations by speakers brought in by the tribe and some are good and some not so good. In my rating system, which doesn’t mean a hell of a lot, puts Chaske Spencer right near the top. He talked about his experiences as an actor and how it is important to constantly study, whether it be in school or reading a script for a movie and how that is essential to get ahead. I thought that was good advice. Chaske Spencer has played in several movies such as the Twilight franchise, which has its own rabid followers. Before he landed this role, Spencer studied acting in New York City, his current home, and did several off-broadway plays and was about ready to give up on acting until he landed the role in the vampire series. The big city life had its own temptations including drawing from a large menu of drugs and alcohol to suit any person’s taste. He did indulge in the fast life to the point where it controlled him to do whatever it took to get the next fix, but Spencer slowly regained control of his life and told the audience if he went back to that life-style only three things could happen: jail; being institutionalized or death. Pretty blunt words, I’d say!

Acting and going out into Indian communities and telling about the hazards of drugs and alcohol is his cure and his obsession. Although he lives in the city, he goes back each year to his reservation and participates in a sun-dance and said when he is hanging there with the string going through his pectoral muscles (remember the movie “A man called Horse”) he is praying, not for himself, but all the people sick, hurting, in jail, on drugs, and alcohol. Those were well-chosen words! He connected to his audience and after he concluded his presentation, he asked the audience if they had any questions and normally nobody asks much, but not this time, quite a few people asked about his acting career, his vices and where he hopes to go from here. I truly believed the people there were proud there is an Indian actor like him out there. It is different, for sure. I enjoyed watching the young children ask question after question and as Spencer said if he can make a difference to just one person then he has done his job, but I think he reached more than one on this trip.

Tax day, old people and 40 years later!

2011-04-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Today is tax day and I have to pay again this year – so much for the talk about Indians not paying taxes. Gas is fast approaching $4 a gallon with no end in sight. Geez, who’s making the money off us consumers? The oil companies, the Arabs, or is it all a ploy for big business to make more money off the American public again? I heard on the news that people are staying home and only driving to work to save money, which makes sense but that ain’t no fun after a while. I like being home though, it is my comfort zone for sure. Groceries are a big ticket item too. With all these sky-rocketing cost, somebody is making some money somewhere. The bad thing is the old people will have to decide: do I eat or do I fill my prescription for medicine I dearly need. It’s bad enough that nobody wants to mess with the old folks and now life will only get harder for them. It isn’t just old people though, the young people have to bear this current high overhead too. It’s too bad there isn’t a leader somewhere with a backbone to say “enough.”

On a lighter note, this week I will have been married for 40 years. Now let's put that into perspective, that is with the same woman, not 10 with one, 15 with another, and so on, but with the same woman. I personally think she deserves some kind of shiny medal from somebody, but we don’t do that in Indian Country, so I will have to take her to some fine food place and get her some right pretty flowers and maybe indulge in some mindless gambling somewhere in the hopes of breaking even. Seriously, I didn’t really think about this until recently and it is a big thing for an Indian to be married that long. Some people don’t even live that long. My cousin said “she put up with you that long.” Yes, she did. She even stuck by me when I got sick and had operations a few times. We aren’t perfect, but hell who is? Another friend said “pray together, stay together.” We have done that. Maybe that is a reason. We had some great memories from our daughters and their children that we are content with that alone. She put up with me for 40 years, but I think I did my part – I worked all those years except for brief times between jobs, I mowed her yard, tended her garden and was her chauffer for years, so I deserve my side of the bed. But, let’s be clear here: she was better for me than I was for her. And as Forrest Gump said, "that's all I'm going to say about that."

Jayhawks, lawyers and politicians!

2011-04-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

The dismantling of the Jayhawks has begun. The Morris twins are forgoing their senior years for the big bucks of the NBA, where they will drive the big cars, wear fine jewelry, have a wad of big bills that allow them to have a woman on each arm, another in the apartment and several more on speed-dial, but that ain’t nothing because they already had all that in Lawrence, so it must be the prospect of playing the LaBron James of the world that lured them away. I guess Selby is close behind, but he never really did anything at KU to be a lottery pick and second round draft choices don’t command anything, so good luck Josh in Europe.

Over in the “real world,” they sentenced several people in the Jayhawk ticket fiasco to well over 46 months in prison and they have to repay millions back to KU, but a lawyer in Topeka got drunk and killed some innocent guy walking down the road and he only got 42 months in a plea agreement. Who would know the legal system and how to manipulate it better than a four-time DUI convicted lawyer? This is Jayhawk Country! You can get more jail-time for selling tickets to your buddies than lawyers get for killing people. Of course, those ticket people didn’t know how to push the right button, but they will learn how it is in the local prison system.

But in the real, real world out East (D.C.politics), they are having a real pissing contest. One day they are shutting down the federal government, the next they fight over the debt ceiling and tomorrow they will fight over some dog fight in Atlanta. The reason for the fight is somebody is trying to gain some traction for the next presidential race and if they can make the other side look bad enough they just might win. Again, the Democrats hate the Republicans, the Republicans hate the Democrats and the devil hates us all.

I know these are some serious issues that I laid on your plate today, but maybe I’m still recovering from my operation or maybe its cause my riding mower is in the shop and I have to get out and push the mower tonight, which drives me to dark writing, but isn’t it fun living in the U.S. of A.?

Tuesday Update!

2011-04-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

I've been on the path to recovery, so I haven't posted anything as of late. Before this operation, I was having nightmares or maybe I was being delusional or maybe it was something demented in the recesses of my mind, but I had this recurring thing of rejoining my brother Larry. I would wake up from one of these episodes and thought damn, I havent' reached that rejoining stage just yet. I miss my brother a bunch, but I thought I had adjusted. After he died, I had nightmares and in time some of the pain left, but evidently, some of that stuff still lingers -maybe it's all deeply ingrained in the psyche and comes roaring back at times, kinda like the weather we had at the end of March. I always said I hope the Indians on the other side play some golf, then I can get back on the course with him again.

But getting back to the issue at hand, I had this operation on Thursday of last week. Normally, this removing a gallbladder takes about an hour and another hour or so in recovery then they cart you out the door to be on your merry way. It didn't quite go that easy. They had some problems and tore a cystic duct and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get it right. When I came out of that operating room, I don't recall experiencing such pain and they nurse said I was "combative" and it took a while for the morphine and pain pills to kick in, in fact, I had to stay a night in the hospital to get me right. Being naive, I told my wife when I get this procedure done, we would burn it to the casino afterwards, but that notion didn't pan out. The pain lingered for days afterwards so don't let anybody tell you these procedures or operations are simple because you never know what will happen when you go under. I've had some operations before and I always hated the idea of being totally out and depending on somebody else to get it right.

When I came home, I stayed home. I sat in my favorite chair and toughed it out. I said the pain can't last forever and it didn't. There oughta be easier ways to get a day off from work. Each day, I get stronger and I appreciate my family for giving a damn about me during this time, after all this is the definition of family, help each other when you can. I know one thing for sure, it better be a convincing argument to have another operation cause I ain't going to do it unless it's absolutely necessary to the point where I have to crawl into that hospital and say help me.

KU Basketball one more time and other events!

2011-03-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

We finished up our 4-day Spring Dance and everything went well. It seems to go by too fast. A lot of people don't understand and run our religion down, but it is our way and we don't much care what people say. I had to go to er after the first day. I guess in my advancing years some of the body parts don't want to cooperate with the program, so I have to have a gallstone thing done this week. As I've said in the past, if I knew I was going to live this long, hell I would have taken better care of myself.

During our Dance, the Kansas Jayhawks went down in flaming defeat, if you can call missing a slug of free-throws and 3-pointers flaming. They played during our ceremonies so we missed out on the crucification. My grandson forgot to record it, but that was just mean't to be. 35-3 is not a shabby record but we expected a tad bit more, us spoiled rotten Jayhawk fans. What are we going to do now? Who wants to watch the Kansas City Royals. We sure ain't going to watch VCU or Kentucky. I enjoyed this season so much. I look forward to every game and I had this routine and I stuck to it. I might have fallen asleep a few times during routs, but that too could be from age. We build ourselves up to a lather and it didn't pan out, but we will move on cause what choice do we have? Luckily the grass is growing so I can break out the old mower and do some grass-cutting and my garden planting awaits.

Locally the state guys are at it again. This one yahoo said Kansas needs to shoot those Mexicans from helicopters like they do feral pigs. He probably would like to off us Indians too but they haven't said that just yet. I'm not a light skinned Indian so I'm in trouble if I'm in Southeast Kansas or Phoenix Arizona, damn I survived many a bar-room fight but I might die from a Republican bullet. I thought somebody had a dream that everybody would walk hand in hand. Oh, they was talking about whites and blacks and that didn't include Mexicans and darker skinned Indians.

The here and now!

2011-03-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t heard by now, our Jayhawks have kicked the first round jinx out the door and have overcome some jitters in winning their first two games of the NCAA basketball tournament. I sat in my chair getting pretty animated, said a few choice words at times and analyzed the action so I can report it here. The Hawks are finding ways to win, and the old formula of pounding the ball inside to the Morris twins seems to work best and on occasion Taylor attacks the basketball and even if he misses, the twins will slam home a miss. The newspapers are projecting the twins to be lottery picks in the next NBA draft and if they leave it will leave cupboard bare for next year, but we will worry about that on a later date.

The three-point shots of Morningstar and Reed have cooled as of late, but they will hit when it counts. I like what I’ve seen so far. A 34-2 record isn’t shabby in anybody’s book. On a side-note, I hate listening to some of the ESPN announcers. Some of the local fans have turned them off altogether and listen to the local radio station. I might have to try that. I didn’t get into bracket gambling because I don’t want to jinx the Hawks. Last year I almost won the one here at the office but that last shot rimmed off so I ended up with nothing, but also the Hawks went down in the second round. We fans can get superstitious too. They made the announcemnet that Bill Self and Roy Williams will play in a Charity skins event on May 15th here on our golf course. It might be a good time to offer Bill some advice.

The next game is scheduled for San Antonio this Friday. I have religious obligations so I can’t be there (like I really could) but I may have to sneak out of church services if it is in the evening. I’m sure the man who knows everything is a KU fan too, in fact, I’m sure of it. If somehow we did lose out earlier than expected, we won’t sit around and cry about it, we will reload and go for the glory again next year, but we want the glory this year.

The Calm before the Storm

2011-03-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

What is fairly obvious in Division I basketball, especially after watching early league tournament results is you better be ready to play or you will be gone. Locally, K-State took it on the chin, as did Pitt. KU luckily escaped an upset in the first round; Ohio State needed an overtime to win; North Carolina came back from 16 down and won by one. Of course, this won’t affect invitations to the Big Dance which brings up a point I made awhile back –what is the purpose of the league tournaments? I would much prefer to cut right to the chase. In the Big Dance, you lose, you will be gone – a time to hit the road, pack the high-dollar bags and head back to the university dorm and all the pretty groupies there will console the losers, but the winners will go on to bigger and better things and eventually get the prom queen.

I enjoy watching KU play and count the hours till they play again. I think this is a surprising season for some, but around here we expect 30+ wins and making it to top five of the national rankings . One ESPN announcer said Bill Self teams are tremendous and when they fall apart in the tournament all you can say is “what happened.” We hope it isn’t the case this year and it shouldn't happen if they show up to play their a-game, which includes pounding the ball inside and take the 3-point shot when it's there, try and hit the free-throws and good things will happen. I will remain a die-hard KU fan until the bitter end. I drove by the campus one time. I didn't go to school there. I graduated from the local U - Washburn, but I've followed KU sports since the Bobby Douglass, Donnie Shanklin, John Riggins and later the Nolan Cromwell years and just about every basketball team since the Coach Owens days. If it makes any difference, I also like the KU blue colors and I always hated the color purple and not because of Oprah either.

To get back to the present, call me lazy, if you must, but I took a day of leave for the first Big 12 tournament game of KU and did some work around the house and stayed glued to that tube for the duration of the game and used some foul language at times, but you can do that in the privacy of your own home. The Supreme Court hasn't outlawed that yet. The justices are fairly lenient in some areas because they will allow you to picket the funerals of fallen soldiers. I suppose in their legal Republican eyes, they are interpretating the law the right way.

Oh, those protesters are living right down the road from our reservation. On occasion, we drive by their pickets and they are pretty graphic. One time many years ago, my nephew told the main guy in this group as they stopped at a light: "I saw you on tv last night." The guy told this young boy "f...you, you little faggot." So this highlights his mentality and this guy is suppose to be a preacher. Kansas isn't famous for him alone though. We've had some doozies here in Kansas beside those clowns, we had this one Attorney General who wanted to ban drinking on planes flying over Kansas. Another a.g. had the hots for the Indian tribes and did everything he could to legally spite the tribes. It was during this period that one guy said they have a sign on the Kansas border: Welcome to Kansas, Welcome to the past. And our local Kansas legislators will not be out-done. The have tried to limit or have outlawed strippers, smoking in public, allowed the sale of hard liquor in grocery stores, and almost put some mentally disabled people out on the street. I guess they are protecting the public in this way. I calling it forcing their beliefs on everybody else. These powers on one hand, allow these jokers to protest funerals and turn righteous in the next moment and passed all kind of moral legislation.

Who know what's next, maybe, just maybe they won't come into our homes and stop the cussin over basketball games because that is fun to some, but maybe not to all. So, enjoy it while you can. You never know what righteous country club Republicans will do next!

Phoenix, Gas prices and Winning Shots!

2011-03-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

By choice, I’ve boycotted the fine city of Phoenix and won’t go there unless it is absolutely necessary, mainly because of the immigration stance they have taken. If I did go there, hell, I might get deported to Mexico cause I have the same type of features (shades of Born in East L.A.), but now this nonsense is getting close to home. Those whiter-than-me state legislators are pushing for the same type of laws here. If I’m stopped here (racial profiling), then I have to show a tribal ID and damn just think if I don’t have one on me, would I be shipped off to Mexico or some far-off land? What would I do there? I can’t talk Mexican, and I weigh too much to climb the big fence they have erected between the United States and Mexico, so I guess the only thing I could do is improvise and sit around and smoke dope or join the local cartel to make enough money to support my family back home.

It just seems to me, these politician people oughta be trying to fix the messed-up state budget, and at last count, it stood at $500 million. And did I mention this is is a Republican state? It has been for long, long time so they can’t blame Democrats for the huge deficit. It’s bad enough they are attacking the strippers and taking their living away from them. They make all these wise decisions in the newly renovated state capitol building (could this be the source of some of the deficit? At last check it was $172.5 million in expenditures so far and counting?) and now they want to target the dark-skinned ones in this state. Damn, what’s next? Will they put all the people at KNI out on the street?

At the gas pumps, our local station is charging $3.47 a gallon and in California it is well over $4.25 a gallon. It’s not all political unrest in the Middle East, some experts say the consumption by Americans is also a factor. Experts say gas is going up because the economy is getting better and the unemployment rate is going down. Oh, let me put this on pause for a second! The people are going back to work here in the US of A, so the best thing for big business is to raise the prices at the gas pumps. Help me, somebody, anybody, figure this out. Luckily I don’t’ have the energy to drive or fly to watch KU play in the Big Dance, so the gas isn’t a factor for me at the moment. But, it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not because KU is getting the scissors ready. Maybe poor old Charlie Sheen might have the time to watch a few games since Warner Brothers fired him yesterday

On a more serious note, the following story highlights the highs and lows of life: It is just plain awful about what happened to 16-year old Wes Leonard of Femville, Michigan. He hits the winning shot in a basketball game that kept the team undefeated for the season and a few seconds into the team celebration, the young man died of heart failure. This isn’t a desired outcome for any of our children and my prayers go out to this family in Michigan. The young man will keep hitting those winning shots in the afterlife.

Charlie Sheen, pay raises and Gadafi

2011-02-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

There are so many pampered, spoiled rotten baseball and basketball stars with gigantic egos that it is almost accepted in our culture.  This behavior spills out to most sports (see the tiger stories), politics and to movie and television stars, which brings us to the Charlie Sheen drama of late! He is demanding a pay raise to $3 mllion per episode for his role in the “Two and Half Men,” television show, before he comes back to the set. Yeah, it’s a funny show that I watch on rare occasion but is anybody worth that much? He is already the highest paid actor on television now at $2 million per show. His show brings in so much cash for CBS that they are willing to over-look his recent past of eccentric behavior.

This pattern has gotten him into trouble with the law in Colorado, and New York City and it revolves around his drinking and dope excesses. plus his harem. It's kinda crazy, the press attacked Tiger for having a woman in every port, but with Charlie it's a non-issue or so it seems. In a recent interview: “He claimed he has conquered his own drug and alcohol problems by the sheer force of his will: “I closed my eyes and made it so.” Didn’t I say he was a funny guy? 99 1/2% of the people don’t have that kind of power! He continued with “he has nothing in common with addicts and alcoholics, who he says lack his strength of character, describing them as “fools, trolls, weak, defeated. They allowed defeat to be an option. I will not.” Lindsay Lohan doesn't have the market cornered on self-destruction, she needs to move her low-cut, tight-fitting, white dress over and make room for Charlie Sheen.

His gigantic ego is highlighted with these remarks: “I’m tired of pretending like I’m not special,” Sheen continued. “I’m tired of pretending like I’m not bitching, a total fricking rock star from Mars, and people can’t figure me out; they can’t process me. I don’t expect them to. You can’t process me with a normal brain.” All of you autograph hounds better get out there and get his signature on anything because according to him, it will be worth a mint someday!

He sounds a lot like the delusional Moammar Gadafi of Libya who said today he is not stepping down, proclaiming in a media interview: "My people love me. They would die for me." He says this with his country in political shambles. The end of the road is near for both these jokers. With Sheen, we can get by without him if he goes down in a blaze of glory and it won’t cost us anything. And looking into that round fuzzy crystal ball, once his bank-roll is depleted, see how long one of those pretty women will stay with him.  But with Gadafi, on the other hand, the gas pumps are going to blow before too long. I think it’s the big companies capitalizing and taking advantage of the consumer again and blaming the geopolitical unrest in the Middle East and gouging the hell out of us at the pumps. So, right or wrong, we will pay for his crazy-ass behavior.

And getting back to Sheen’s raise, he told CBS to “take or leave it,” because he is underpaid now. What is funnier yet is that he is saying “look at what you put me through.” The guy has the victim’s role down pat for sure. He thinks CBS owes him an apology “while licking my feet.” Do you think this guy is hanging on the edge?  We already know Gadafi is!

Snow and KU!

2011-02-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Mother Nature might just give us a snow-break. We had 9” of snow the other day and let me tell you I need to stop that shoveling snow business because my back was hurtin pretty bad for a couple of days. I guess when you get to a certain age that you should let somebody else that kinda stuff, but I probably won’t listen to my own advice or my back and will continue to do my own work. Well anyway, we don’t have anything to complain about – December was mild and we didn’t get the snows till January and February. On top of that, hey it’s winter time yet.

It’s getting close to crunch time for college basketball. I haven’t written about the sport since KU lost to those farmers out west. I thought: okay it’s alright to lose a couple of times but not to those guys! That’s all I can say about that.

A top team needs to be ready all the time and can’t take anything for granted, and this is especially true in March. The team who goes into the tournament and plays with another level of intensity will be holding that big trophy at the end. It’s only then that the Fat Lady will sing, the cheerleaders will rub on the players, the cameras will go off non-stop, some coach can expect a huge pay-increase while the players have to resort to whatever method to put walking around money in their pockets, some player will become famous as a result of the last games or command a huge NBA contract, and there will be a whole lot of people pissed off again.

I hope it isn’t KU and us die-hard fans. There are some tough teams out there, Pittsburgh, Duke, St. Johns, Ohio State, Texas, to name a few so the road isn’t going to be easy for anybody. I think they need to get to the big dance and do away with those league tournaments because if you haven’t got it together by then ….

I hate to see the season end! I watch KU all season, read all the headlines about them, and did my own commentary about them. The Morris twins have done an outstanding job in the paint and can shoot from the outside on occasion. One of the ESPN announcers said he saw the twins in an all-star game in NYC and they didn’t play in the big game but in a level below that. He said he was surprised KU offered them a scholarship, but Self has molded them into top-notch players and I think Danny Manning has a huge influence on both of them. Manning is a master at teaching the footwork to the big guys because of his own experiences. He played injured in the pros and made those needed adjustments to survive in the NBA. The two guards Morningstar and Reed have been lights out on several occasions and nobody can say white boys can’t run and shoot at that level. Selby, despite the hype, is a hit and miss guy who needs more seasoning. T-Rob is a hard-working guy, and has also improved under Manning. Taylor needs to harness those inner demons and #15 Johnson has fallen from the sky and helped this year. I thought Releford would do more this year and is a dark-horse to help more in March Madness. When KU passes the ball enough times, somebody is open as evidenced by their 52% nation-leading field goal percentage. When they pound the ball into the middle first it frees up somebody on the outside and makes them a top team. But the word “intensity” has to come into play to make it anywhere in the big dance for KU. It's a similar picture to when Jock Ewing told Bobby in the show "Dallas:" nobody is going to give you power, you gotta take it.

I guess if all else fails, we can dream about next season, but hell that ain’t no fun!

So what's new on the Kansas prairie?

2011-02-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

In the local capital, the politicos are debating restrictions on strip-clubs, similar to what Missouri did last year. I guess those working mamas are a true danger to society. In righteous terms, legislators can do that and anything else they want, but there also has to be a budget balanced and at this very moment over $340 million needs to be cut. Doesn’t’ that make you wonder about political focus? On Saturday afternoon, over on the west side of Topeka, at a kiddie place called Chuckie Cheeses there was a near riot. The parents of these little kids attending a birthday party decided to swing it out. Damn, the legislators oughta put some restrictions on those food establishments too, and put into law that parents must stay six foot from each other and can’t touch each other. I used to think those kind of fisticuffs only happened at Little League games, but it's always best to stay tuned.

On the Topeka city level, these city workers were caught selling copper that just happened to belong to the city and they were slapped on the wrist. Maybe it was because they only made $400 on the deal. In the rest of the world people lose their jobs over a missing box of cough drops or something far less than the $400 figure.

On the tube the other day, the United States Congress was holding court and speaker after speaker got up there to denounce the Obama health care plan as the worst legislation ever in the history of this country. After all this pontification, this black woman made it to the podium and tied into her esteemed colleagues and said slavery was the worst thing that ever happened to this country. I personally don't know what is worse -Obama and his dreams or slavery, but I would have given a couple of bucks to see the looks on the faces of her fellow politicians.

And in Wisconsin they want public workers to give a bunch of concessions so they can balance their budget and the people are in an up-roar. On the news, this guy said politicians over the years didn't want to say no and gave all kind of concessions to the unions and now its a mess. It is a closely watched event by the rest of the country because what happens in Wisconsin will happen everywhere.

The funny thing is these congressmen make $175,000 a year, get subsidized housing, get wined and dined by lobbyists, have a cushy health plan and you don’t want to hear about their retirement plans. They sure won’t make any concessions with their own packages on the state or federal levels. "Do as I say, not as I do."

It seems to me, as a political agenda that it would be safer to attack the Mexicans than the people who vote them into office, but what do I know? Oh, that's right Kansas is atttacking the Mexicans too, not just the strippers. And one more local tidbit: Kansas is trying to expand its hard liquor sales to grocery stores. Uh, we don't want anybody smoking within 100 yards of anybody else, but we will sell you some Jack Daniels on every street corner. Huh? The political winds in the Middle East (and fully expect the gas at the pump to go sky-high) and America are a swirling these days.

And in closing, there was this teacher who had a blog and she wrote about how worthless some of her students were and she mentioned how the parents made them that way, etc. etc. Well, the parents read this and they got all indignant and now the woman is on the firing line, literally, for probably telling the truth. She, along with that black woman on Capital hill will probably pay dearly for talking up. The point is some freedoms in this country are slowly eroding away like a hillside in California after a good rain.

The Games of Life

2011-02-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

My brother asked me to go to the KU game Saturday with him, but I told him I’ve grown accustomed to sitting in my chair watching my big screen tv (32”) and had to pass on the offer. At home, I can get up from my chair to get me a something to drink, eat or go to the bathroom without having to fight off huge crowds. And I can watch replays. I’m lazy like that, but just on game days. A few years ago, this tribal council guy asked me to go to a KU game against Southern Cal and the seats were in the 8th row and I turned him down too. Just call me crazy or somebody who can't recognize an opportunity. I know my living room doesn’t have the atmosphere of Allen Field-house, but I’m a creature of habit. We schedule our day around KU games. If it’s a Saturday and they play at 3pm, we get our grocery shopping and paying bills out of the way, so we can be home watching the game on schedule. And if we can’t be home and we are at a gaming venue, I try and situate myself to where I can watch one of the television monitors. I’m still thankful they asked me to go to the games, but I guess I’m no fun.

Speaking of fun, my grandson Nyeh Washkeh must be having some fun because he told me yesterday he was going to be a daddy and that will make me a great grandfather (or misho in our language, so now I will be a great misho). I’ve always thought the world of my grandchildren and now it’s time to spoil another one, but this time is will be a great-grandchild. I give thanks for this time in my life where me and the great grandmother can see this new baby come to our home and reservation. It oughta be fun. When Pat ko shuk, my youngest grandson was a little guy, I would change his diaper and my wife about fell over. I guess she never ever expected to see me do that. I also would sit with him and watch "Shrek" and this movie about horses and he wanted to watch them over and over and we did. I suppose age has softened me up abit, but not much.

Oh, let me have a tangent here. KU lost the other night but I remain a dedicated fan. I went to bed mad, woke up mad, went to work mad, but I will get over it. They will correct the mistakes and improve for the Big Dance and it is true that it isn’t over until the fat lady sings and I haven’t heard her kicking any tunes out around here.

Not to sound like a damn hypocrite, I thought about driving to the first game of the regional and even though it’s against my accustomed life-style, I thought about buying a couple of tickets from scalpers and watching a game. If I can’t obtain a ticket in this illegal fashion then I would go to the nearest casino and come home the next day. Those are only thoughts at this time and not necessarily the way it will work out.

Chuck Lorre, who regularly adds messages to his end-of-show vanity cards, included one after Monday's episode that said this:

"I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I floss every night. I've had chest x-rays, cardio stress tests, EKG's and colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce stress. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy, reckless sex with strangers. If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed."

So there it is!

All writing is not friendly!

2011-02-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

A national writer named Carl Horowitz had a recent article wanting to terminate the Bureau of Indian Affairs and threw in his opinions about other topics related to Indian people. It wasn’t good reading. Anti-Indian material coming from the poison pen of people like Horowitz is nothing new. In addition hearing this kind of talk is an affront to treaty rights, and is so contrary to established settled law. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me to hear some of this crazy talk resurrected again, but I guess he has an audience somewhere or he likes to hear himself rant.

He said the bureau budget of $2.7 billion needs some serious down-sizing and the agency combines “patronage and ethnic separatism into a single package, wasting sizable tax dollars in the process.”

Horowitz gives us a history lesson, like we really needed it: there are 564 federally-recognized Indian (including Alaskan) tribes in this land of ours, representing nearly two million persons. Crucially, a tribe operates under a federal grant of sovereign status. Taken as a whole, Indian tribes are a loose confederacy of mini-nations, each with its own elected tribal government overseeing courts, schools, job training, health care, infrastructure development, and on due occasion, casinos.

He goes on to say how tribal leaders enjoy enormous power and listed a whole bunch of corrupt examples. He makes it sound like these things happen only with Indians, but Horowitz needs to get real and open up the daily paper and see what his neighbors have done lately. He also criticized the Indian Health Service for losing $15.8 million of medical equipment during a three year span and continues to lose property. He needs to go back to the Jack Anderson archives and read about all the military and non-military financial abuses over the years. Those financial abuses have never been corrected. The whole system needs to be looked at, but D.C. politicians won’t allow that because they need to protect the trough.

Then he turned his focus to class-action lawsuits (“far bigger piles of loot, however, can be made legally), and how wrong it was for American Indian farmers and ranchers to win discrimination suits and getting some money in the process. Another case he cited was the Cobell decision and called it a shake-down. Discrimination and cheating Indians out of their rightful royalties is evidently fine by this guy. Oh, also did he forget this is the most litigious society in a long time and maybe it is the only way to get a wrong corrected.

Horowitz then attacked the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and said they created a monopoly for tribes and that there were immune from state regulation and federal taxation. Of course, he didn’t read the law very carefully, since most tribe were required to enter a tribal-state compact and Indian casinos are the most regulated industry in America, but that is conveniently left out. And the IRS gets their due no matter what color skin you have.

Horowitz doesn’t’ stop there, he said “the federal government can’t bottle up their sense of moral entitlement. But it doesn’t have to subsidize it either.” His answer: “Ending the network of incestuous relationships and accompanying corruption requires that Congress do the unthinkable: Abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and all other federal agencies that serve Native American interests. These agencies have outlived whatever usefulness they had. Lawmakers also ought to end the practice of formal tribal recognition" which to him is costly and hurts national identity. Horowitz said "in the late 1940s, Congress set up a commission and one of its recommendations was that the assimilation of Indians into the mainstream of American society must be a top priority. Dismantling the Indian bureaucracy would be a major step in that direction.”

Indians have had to put up with this kind of termination rubbish for years. The Horowitz tirade is a good example of why tribes need to get out and tell their own stories and what they’ve done with the casino cash. It isn't by accident that the neighborhood got fixed up, jobs were created and lives were improved because of the American Indian bailout –The National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It is important to tell people or educate them on the losses both in land and people that Indians have suffered -remind them of the treaties Indians signed that gave land to this country to make it great.

It is also important for the people in Indian tribes to come to the realization that it does little good to fight among themselves, when there is a bigger enemy over the horizon.

The weather, the MIddle East and prison life!

2011-02-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

Somebody just told me we have only 31 more days until spring, so I guess that little fat rat in Pennsylvania might be telling the truth especially since it will get to 62 degrees next Wednesday and 66 on the following day. I don’t reckon the snow will melt enough to make my 2011 golf debut, plus our course won’t be open yet.

Any bets that we will send troops to the Egypt soon? I took a history class at the local U about the Middle East and I never did grasp what they were always fighting about over there. I suppose politics is the same everywhere, somebody has got to be knocked off to give the next one a chance to get it right. But what happens if it never gets right?

My grandson Pat ko shuk was sick last night so I stayed home and watched him. I hate it when the kids are sick, I would much prefer it be me instead of them. Well, anyway the rest of the gang went and watched a presentation at Royal Valley. This guy who gave the presentation had a fairly rough life. He was an ex-marine, ex-dope dealer and an ex-con who now goes around to different school systems and tells the young people about making the right choices in life or they could end up like him. He didn’t hold any punches back and told how prison life was –gang rapes, constant fighting and a terrible life in general. My brothers and I were bad boys in our day, but I say we were lucky we didn’t have to serve time. Sometimes I get really angry over the circumstances of my life but being in jail wasn’t one of them and I’m thankful for that. I hope and pray our young people don’t have to go through what this man experienced in his life. It’s too bad our reservation programs don’t get speakers like this guy to talk to our youth. I think it is so true that if a presentation like this can save one person then they got it right! I personally don’t think we have to preach to people, but give them alternatives and let them make their own choices.

Now I’m going to sit back and wait for KU to play again and to watch the snow melt!

Old men, weather and KU (again).

2011-02-07T13:13:00.001-08:00

KU is back on track to win the national championship. They look awful tough in the last few outings and will be a handful for anybody in the future. They are playing without Josh Selby and if they are doing that great without him, did they really need him or will they only get better with him? Only time will let us know that. Snow is also right around the corner, but heck what can you expect -its winter time.

If I can make it a few more hours, I will have turned 60 years old. I will take the day off and sit around and wonder how many more of these birthdays I have left. I’ve seen my share of good and bad times. I’ve known some great people and also have met some who weren’t worth a damn. But it all makes for an interesting life. I don’t suppose I would change anything, of course, I don’t have that option anyway. I suppose everything happened for a reason and was an opportunity to learn a lesson from it.

My mail comes around one or two and I will be like Forrest Gump and sit by my mailbox waiting. In his case, he waited for his son to return on the bus, but for me I will wait all those gifts and cards from my family and the few friends I have left.

Jokes aside, I don’t need any material goods. Hell I’ve been working on spring cleaning for years now so I don’t need more. I do appreciate everything people have done for me this past year and just want everyone to have a great 2011. I hope your pockets fill with gambling winnings in this new year either through per caps, robbin banks or hitting those 777's. May you always have food on your table! May you find happiness in some form or another. I can't go beyond those three wishes for you -money, food and happiness is about the top three choices for most people. Oh, yeah, may the person responsible for us being here smile upon your lives in 2011 and forever.

Now I’m inching closer and closer to the day I will retire, but I don’t really want to break my current routine and I haven’t seen everything or every place in this great land so I need to stay a little longer. But when that day comes, I want to go and play on the cheapest courses and hit balls I find along the way. Maybe I will sneak onto our course and hit a few holes before it gets dark. Can you imagine that, an old guy sneaking into such a great course? Don't tell the leadership I'm thinking of doing that. Other days, I will sit on my back porch and watch the sun go down and give thanks that I lived that long, plus I want to watch my grandchildren grow up. Hopefully they won't have to go into tribal politics.

I am going to close for now and go wait by the mailbox (even if it is cold).

Snow Time on the Potawatomi Reservation!

2011-02-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

We’ve been freezing our popsicles off here in Kansas, but the great blizzard of 2011 decided to skirt our reservation and we sure appreciated that move. We still got 8” of snow or better and over 20” so far this winter. This pales in comparison to the two foot of snow further north and east. For most of us, we still remember the storm of 2007 when we went days without electricity and it got down-right uncomfortable, so we can only be thankful.

Our Jayhawks are smoking with a 21-1 record and they are a joy to watch. They are playing more like a team every game and the chemistry is clicking. KU will be ready for the last six games of the year and they might not win it all but I believe they will be in the hunt. I like this team. They have the big men, top notch shooters and can run up and down the court like few can. Oh, and they can pass.

The kids are enjoying the days off but will be mad later when they have to make up the days. My grandson said “we don’t have school tomorrow so it’s time to party.” He’s a crazy talker at times. The other day we were driving down the road and I messed up his channel and he told me he was going to put me in a rest-home. Damn, see what I got to look forward to!

In the winter time, I have more time to do my projects. I built my sister a birdhouse and she said she now had a place for the neighborhood birds. I told her no this birdhouse is for the Purple Martins, not village birds. I also built a life-guard chair for my yard. I have no beach or pool but I saw one in Florida and took a picture of it and built it from that shot. I’m going to sit in that chair next summer when I’m taking a break from my yard and garden work. I go to my workshop and fire my stove up, crank up the Ipod to full blast and work. I take many breaks and think how I’m going to build something and enjoy the general solitude. I don’t have much time in the summer to do projects.

Oh, getting back to the snow – next year I’m going to get me one of those snow-blowers. I was watching this guy at work clearing the side-walks and it sure looked more efficient than the back-breaking work of using a shovel, plus it might save a heart-breaker. Stay safe out there!

The Weather, Politics and Birthdays!

2011-01-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

Around these parts we were hit with over 16” of snow and it was bitterly cold for a spell, but now it’s going to start melting with a warming trend in the forecast. Maybe the warming trend started with our last general council meeting. It got heated with arrows flying everywhere and I think some of those hot arrows hit the snow. Some joker said in politics you can make some of the people happy some of the time but not all the time. You gotta love it though and if you can’t take it then it’s time to get out of Dodge or melt like the snow I mentioned.

I sat on the council for years and took the same verbal abuse and you just can’t take it personally, because it is self-evident that whoever gets on that pedestal will be targets. I see the many emotional outbursts at these meetings and wonder why they just don’t go see the council before hand and air their grievances, but I think it’s helluva lot more fun for them to get on a soap-box and carry on, and sometimes it leaves everybody practically speechless. Nothing in politics is a matter of honor, my friend. I think people ought to be glad they can see another day, but that’s something they need to discover. The point is sometimes it’s best to not even try and anticipate any attack, just deal with it the best way you can. Politics is like playground basketball, no blood, no foul. It’s a given those attacks will continue on a quarterly basis and is probably needed to purify the air and they shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the room. That’s my dime-store advice to new comers to the world of politics and probably worth about that much.

I think the biggest surprise for me these days is reaching the age of 60 in a few short days. I feel lucky in a lotta respects to even write about this occasion or milestone, but hell, nonetheless, I'm still here. I coulda been gone a couple of times, but somebody wanted to me to stick around for some reason, maybe I'll figure that one out someday. I’m happy because now I can enjoy my grandchildren and I appreciate that opportunity. Plus, I'm still waiting for that Powerball win, because that would ease retirement concerns and would allow me to humbly live out my life.

This is also the 3rd birthday without my twin-brother Larry. He might not be around anymore, but I’m sure he’s patiently waiting for our next golf outing. I’m going to be mean about this though, I’m going to make him wait a few more years. Please indulge me for a second: I had this dream….that I was an old guy working in my garden with my great grandson, I’m thinking Pat ko shuk’s son, and I’m chasing him around with these vampire teeth in my mouth and I keel over and die in my garden among my tomato plants….

In the meantime, I better get out on our new course and try to sharpen the old game. In my golf outings with Larry, I used to talk “smack,” as the kids say, and his game would fall apart and I would win. Those were good memories for me. I miss that, I miss his daily emails, I mIss the trips to the Land of 10,000 lakes to visit him, I miss his political commentaries, I miss shaking his hand, but you have to adjust. Hell, there isn’t an option here. And maybe it’s true the good guys die young, so now it’s official I’m not a good guy. Yet, people dying can’t define our time here, we have to concentrate on what we have.

On the less serious side, I was sitting next to this one guy and he said he didn’t celebrate birthdays anymore because he already had one foot in the grave. And this other old guy, Wabnum, said: “I’m not old, I just look old.” That’s how I feel about this birthday. I used to tell my brother on our birthday “it was a helluva ride” and is has been. It ain’t no good to beat yourself to sleep every night over the things you did wrong in life, it might be better to regret the things you didn’t do.

Half-Time Report!

2011-01-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

The hardest part of this edition of KU basketball is the wait between games. At this very moment, KU has a not too shabby of a record at 16-0, about mid-way through this season. Around here its a given that KU will win the Big 12 and most of the time the league tournament, but all that takes second fiddle to the last six games of the season. They won it all in Mannings last year and 2008 and could be knocking on the door again this year.

Remember the movie "The Rock" with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. Cage said we got to go back and diffuse the bombs, we got to do our best. Sean Connery, one of the best actors of the ages said, "Losers talk about doing their best, winners go home and make love to the prom queen." Of course, I edited that last part down a bit to keep this blog under the radar screen of morality. But that describes KU basketball, we don't want to hear any whining and crying about doing the best they can, we expect a helluva lot more than that.

There has been some close games in this first half, but KU guts the game out and finds a way to win. In the last game against Iowa State at Ames, KU played the best of all. They pounded the ball to the Morris twins underneath and between them, they had 50 points in a 84-79 win. In the past, KU took some big-time teams into Ames and couldn't win there but this team did. This is the type of ball that will take KU a long way this year. The ESPN announcer said the Morris twins are the best big men in the country. It pains me to see the twins shooting from 3-point range when its a given they can knock down two underneath and a chance to go to the foul line.

This game approach will off-set the missed 3-pointers Reed and Selby and Morningstar will have, but it is spectacular when they go down. Speaking of Morningstar, he sure pissed me off when he did that behind the back pass and caused one of KU's big men to travel. Come on, we have a mission here Morningstar, if you want to showboat go to the Lawrence Country Club and show off for the rich folk there. Selby, once he finds his groove, will contribute more and more. I like his smooth shooting, the ability to give up the ball and pass to an open teammate. He won't be around for long, so enjoy him while you can. This team has the makings of something special.

Now listen closely to those screeching wheels outside our door, the KU bandwagon is going to slow down for a short time and we're going to let a few wildcat fans on board. Jump on board and enjoy the ride. Times awastin!

Wednesday evening thoughts!

2011-01-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

It is sickening again to read about another shooting, this time in Arizona. Geez, I know politicians aren't the most popular people to ever come down the pike, but to gun one down is insane. And that is the only word that can describe this guy who killed six people and wounded others including a gal named Gabby. Insane is when a person doesn't know right from wrong. The guy killed a little girl only nine years old. Maybe we can understand a bit about some of this horrible incident but not shooting a young girl. Insane!

The gal named Gabby is a fighter. The bullet went through her head and she is responding well, almost a miracle.  I hope and pray she comes out of this a healthy and better person. I don't know if it would be worth it for her to get back into the political game though. It's bad enough people take pot-shots all the time, and hate each other over politics, but to add bullets to the assault isn't worth it for anybody.

And it ain't no sense bringing back talk of gun-control because they did that after the Kennedys were shot a long time ago and that debate didn't go anywhere and how many shootings have taken place since? Even if they did try and control it, people would still buy a gun on the black market, much like booze during the prohibition and dope on a rez corner. If they want it, they will get it. What is the answer? Nobody really knows, but people pretend they do and we know they don't.  There is no answer on the political stage.

Maybe it's time for more prayer in everybody's life. It is easy to laugh at this suggestion for those who don't know prayer or think they will ever need it.  Yet, in everybody's life there are low times, maybe not as bad as what is going on in Arizona and their grief, but prayer will help us and the people suffering so badly now.

Local basketball again!

2011-01-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

When my brothers and I played football way back in the 60s -yes I still can remember those days. I honestly believe that if it wasn’t for the sport, I would have dropped out of school (Larry did and spent his senior trip in Vietnam). Every year we would look forward for the season to begin and playing in the football games was dream-come-true for some dirt-poor Indians. We never went on to any athletic success after high school, but football kept us in high school.

I don’t think some people recognize facts like this if it reached up and slapped them in their worthless faces. Over the years I saw so many kids drop out of the local school system. The drop rate for Indian students here is high over the years, but it’s something people don’t want to talk about. Now, they have to finish school to get a percentage of their per-caps, but that incentive wasn’t always there. Sadly, some had the potential to do so much more with their lives.

Sure some parents didn’t give a damn and some of the students probably didn’t either, but let’s go back to the original notion, sports does help students stay in school and can keep them out of trouble and there is plenty of that out there.

With my grandchildren, I’ve had a mixed bag of success. My oldest Tara, stood out when she played basketball, scoring 35 points in one game and making all-league two years running but after that it was hit and miss. Nyeh Washkeh loved the game of basketball, but wasn’t given much of chance to play and he left to play at Kickapoo Nation School and graduated from there.

Now we are going through the same thing again. My grandson Hooty also left the local school system, where he was given no playing time. He quit the team and the coach didn’t give a damn and didn’t even ask why? Last night, he played his first game at KNS. He scored 5 points and 3 assists. All he wanted was a chance to play and getting some playing time isn't too much to ask.

Think about it when was the last time any athlete from any of the local schools turned pro or went to KU, which is the closest to the pros you can get? I guess, in a sense, school ball is like the work force, it's not what you know, it's who you know! It shouldn’t be like that in the school system no matter where you live. Let the kids play – you never know, it might make a difference!

One Potawatomis look back at the year 2010

2010-12-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Looking back at 2010 in the rear-view mirror is a year of mixed emotions.

Around here, it’s always about the weather: We survived over 42” of snow this past winter and the spring brought welcome change. The summer had its spells of rain and then a stifling heat hit. Our pow-wow days were scorchers, as well as the Gathering held in Shawnee, Oklahoma. But, the fall was picture-perfect and we’ve escaped the blizzards the east coast have been experiencing this winter, at least so far.

Outside of a couple wayward souls, most people in this neck of the woods are KU basketball fans. We had such high expectations. This team has national championship written all over it, but it never came to pass. In their last game, I watched the game in disbelief. KU couldn’t seem to do anything right, and I fully expected them to whip off one of their patented 12-0 runs, but it never happened. I thought when they threw a rare full-court press on Northern Iowa, they would unravel and it was close to that, but it wasn't meant to be. Some little gutsy guard shot a long, long 3-point shot with a lotta seconds on the clock and it swished through the net and then I knew it was over.

I did say a few words that aren’t meant for publication and I truly believe I went through a spell of shock. I never thought for a second that they would lose. They were destined for greatness, but there were tell-tale signs throughout the year. KU would create huge leads and then go to sleep and other games they would only play half-hearted. Collins struggled more time than not. Aldrich had his ups and downs. Henry looked like a monster player one minute and quite ordinary the next. Am I painting you a picture of inconsistency because that’s what it was this year. Yet, I remain a KU fan. A 33-3 record isn't bad by anybody's standards. Somebody said after the game "now it's only babies and memories." There's always this year and maybe Selby will make all the nightmares go away.

In May, they had a birthday dinner for Meeks Jackson. She is an 87 year old elder of our tribe and a good person and one of our last fluent speakers.

The summer months were hot and we had a wave of deaths too. Joe Hale died at age 62. I've known Joe and his boys for years. I watched his boys grow up and because of him, they picked up the songs fast. They are known as top of the line singers on the pow-wow circuit, but I remember them most for helping us with the songs in our religion. That will be Joe Hale's legacy -teaching and passing along the traditions of our way of life.

In his earlier days, he went off to Vietnam as a member of the U.S. Marine Corp. It was a hard go for Joe for a good number of years, he had inner struggles that few can know and understand. His life was similar to the life of my brother Larry. Both left here young boys and the Vietnam war changed them into vastly different people. Thankfully, the inner struggles of seeing war, death and seeing their own blood flow in front of them leveled off in time, but both died fairly young. To me, that wasn't much of a reward for serving our country but we have little say in that department. Now the only thing left is the memory of knowing these good people. That is part of the cruel realities of life on an Indian reservation.

Our tribe also lost Mike Jensen, Dale Thomas and Wesley Begay, as well as the song-man Gary Cooper - to name a few. Age or cancer took their lives. Death is an inescapable truth here and everywhere. I knew all these men and they each made their own marks on this life. Life does go by fast, make the most of it, and sometimes I look around and wonder why everybody had to leave!

In June, my granddaughter Tara was able to meet the First Lady, Michelle Obama while she visited Camp Pendleton and San Diego. Tara was able to sit in one of the front rows. Ms. Obama made a visit to encourage the Marines and their families. Tara said she "felt pretty blessed to meet the first African-American First Lady. She's a beautiful and wise woman."

I’ve watched the golf course progress for the last year on my way to work. Let me tell you this promises to be one of the best golf courses in this area, if not all of Kansas. I’ve had the opportunity to play the course once and it is both breathtaking and difficult. It will be one of the toughest courses anybody would want to play and it will only get better looking as the years go by once it’s properly established. It will open for public play in 2011. It may be political suicide, but I might try and sneak over there on occasion. I won't play 600 rounds like some guy in Texas did this year, but at least a few times. Who knows, I might improve on a game that went south years ago.

Other than that, I’m glad I could watch my granchildren grow and develop. Grandchildren can only be viewed as gifts and I'm damn lucky to hang around long enough to see my grandchildren get to this stage of life.

I'm also glad I’m around yet to write these blog entries. I'm thankful to you for reading my material. I know it doesn't make sense at times, but stay with me it will get better. I tried not to hurt any sensitive feelings out there. The sure way to start a fight is to talk about religion and politics, so I stay away from those topics if I can. But that is hard to do. so maybe I did indulge in veiled references at times during the course of this year. I'm guilty. Damn I would hate for somebody to quit talking to me. On top of that, those politico types have their own news outlets!

I mostly try and tell how it is out here on our reservation and how KU is doing, because those are much better story-lines. I hope your holidays were great, your time off work was constructive and you have a safe and happy 2011 and if you see me on the street or rez road, wave or say hello, it would make me feel good, but if not that's good too!

The weather, Josh Selby, and pony-league baseball!

2010-12-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

I woke up today and watched the weather reports on the tube and it looks like this area is safe from all the elements for now. On the West Coast, the rains are hammering the hills of Hollywood, the snow is coming down hard in Colorado and many parts of the East. Some highways are shut down. All of this makes it dangerous to travel. I’m glad I have no travel plans this holiday season and to be truthful I don’t have anybody to go visit anyway, so that’s that. I used to go see my brother Larry in MN on occasion, but that option is no longer there.

And thank goodness for the naysayers out there because I was reminded about Josh Selby being suspended for nine games for taking a little cash when he was in high school. But let’s be real on this subject. This stuff happens all the time in college, it just some get caught and whole bunch of others don't. Some of these guys are coming out of the inner city, talented as the day is long – and when they hit that college campus, they dress good, drive good, spend good, and all that fine jewelry comes from somewhere. Their mammas sure don't send it to them. The last time I drove by an inner city dwelling, it didn’t look like there was an abundance of cash there, maybe a little drug money on the corner but that was about it. That said, being so damn good has its perks! That is the reality of college athletics.

A case in point: Kansas State suspended a couple of their stars for taking improper benefits -a clothing store in Manhattan put some free cloth on them. To be truthful, these athletes should get more in a monetary way. After all the universities and the coachs make millions so why can't the guys who make that possible get a little too. It's only right and then stuff like this won't happen. Maybe!

I read in the paper about some old guy dying. I knew him years ago. My brother Larry and I played pony-league baseball in Hoyt one summer. We would walk to the highway and this guy picked us up and gave us a ride from there and after the game we would walk from the highway again. After a few games, this guy asked us who picked us up. We said nobody, we walked home and after that this guy picked us up at home and gave us a ride home after the games. We lived seven or so miles from the highway. We didn’t care because we wanted to play ball. That old boy lived a long life and he probably never really knew that being good to a couple of Indians wasn’t ever forgotten.

Josh Selby, Religion and the Second Coming

2010-12-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

My spirtual journey has taken a set-back. I've always took pride in my reliablility to my religion. It wasn't always that way, I did partake in the forbidden fruits of life for many years and one day I decided to change. I figured I could work toward making a real effort to do better and hopefully at the bitter end the good just might outweigh the bad. Who knows? I will have to wait for that determination, hopefully until after my next birthday!

But the point of the story is yesterday we had our Winter Ceremonies start here and I was late going in and I did catch it for being late, which is something accorded to a guy who is fairly reliable. I took the verbal stuff because they were right and they knew where I was.

I stayed home and watched on t.v. the "second coming." Josh Selby made his debut at Kansas University and that guy is everything they said he'd be and more. I guess ol Wilt scored 52 points, a KU record, in his debut in the early 1960s and there was no doubt he was one of the best to ever set foot on the KU court. KU was a spring-board for Wilt to greater things in the NBA and his fame also caused him to become a magnet for women, but that's another story. Last year X Henry scored 27 points in his debut, but never approached that number again, and went off to the pros way too early.

Selby will make everybody forget the stars of the past before he's done. It was like magic when he went into the game at 16:00 minute mark. He started out trying to be a passer and then nailed a 3-pointer that brought down the house and proceeded to score 10 points in his first five minutes. It was like he was on the court by himself. I envied those fans, including my nephew William Mitchell, for getting to witness the game first-hand. This game will go down as a memorable moment for them because from my favorite chair in front of my 32" t.v. it was damn exciting to see this milestone.

The game ended 70-68 over USC. KU did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong and if Selby wasn't on that court at the end they would have lost, period. He nailed a 3-pointer with 20 some seconds left and KU ended up winning. Selby delivered and once the chemistry all starts to develop, KU will be the big-dogs of the Big 12. If they tighten down the defense and do more against the other teams big men, they will a presence on the big stage in March. Selby is that good. I don't gush over players that much, but this guy is the real deal.

Now I gotta get back to making amends for being late yesterday, but I'm banking or hoping that the man up stairs is a KU fan too and understands.

Radio Stations, Josh Selby and my new job, maybe!

2010-12-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

My granddaughter Kek said “I wish the rez had its own radio station…” on her facebook page and Katie Mitchell responded with “it could be like smokes signals version. Some guy parked at 6 mile corner telling who passed this way or that way and with who in the car."

It’s no doubt this business venture would certainly fail though. All the people would have to have high pay and all the perks of business, so the bottom line is done gone. I normally just run for tribal office because I know I would never be hired for a tribal position. I wouldn't want to go through that rejection and telling me I ain't qualified even though I worked my entire adult life and even got in a little schooling, but in this case I would at least try and get hired.

I would want the job Katie talked about with certain conditions though. I want to sit on my front porch, instead of 6 mile, on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and I could report to the station about who went by that day waving or maybe if they looked mean and was mad about something or the other. Or they could stop and drink a cup of coffee and tell me their troubles and gripes so I could report on that. On Tuesdays and Fridays, I could sit on the main road and do the same reporting. Hell, they could even stop and tell me they hate hearing me talk Indian or a semblance of the Indian language or tell me they hate me for hating xmas - there ain't no sense having a Potawatomi hold back at this late stage of the game. There is a freedom of speech on our rez,so I’m sure their won’t be anything censored.

I would also like to do the week-end sports commentary. I could tell you about how Josh Selby led the Kansas Jayhawks to the national championship, how the Wildcats of Kansas State fame failed again, how the Royals fell apart again and how they whine about being a small-market team and won’t spend no money on anybody.

And if all else fails, I could tell you about my grandchildren and my dog Coda. That’s if they hired me….

Per cap day on rez

2010-12-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

It’s that day and like some old fool, I’m working today. In some tribes, the entire operation shuts down for a day or two, but we don’t, as far as I know. In a few short weeks we will have to pay taxes on this check, so the myth that Indians don’t pay taxes has gone out the window. I’m just glad I’m alive to see it, because we grew up dirt-poor and it sure would have been handy back then. It would have been nice to dress a little better and have some pocket change and buy things other teenagers enjoyed. (but, growing up poor stories come dime a dozen, right?). I realize some don’t get a per cap and others don’t like it because we do, but that’s the way it is. Sure the amount has gone down a tad, but it’s still better than nothing.

In my observation, more people than not depend on getting this check. They have no jobs – won’t be hired by the tribe or the casino even though there is mention of tribal development now and then. Those folks go to town and pay a few bills and it’s all gone, and just maybe they can squeeze in a few xmas presents. Some just sock it away in their accounts and don’t think twice about it. Some are sick and dying and really can’t enjoy or care about spending anything. Others will throw it all back into the slot machine from where it came, but all of this is their prerogative. Oh well the day will come and go, and Josh Selby will start on Saturday.

Johnny Cash, big city life and travel

2010-12-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about a story about a clone of Johnny Cash, big city life and the drawbacks of travel!

Somebody recently sent me a video of a 16-year boy from Seattle named Vince Mira. He was discovered on the streets of Seattle singing Johnny Cash songs for change and dollar bills. Such is the life of the struggling artist in the big city, but I watched this video and the young boy was impressive. He sang one of Johnny Cash’s songs “Ring of Fire,” and did he ever do justice to the man in black. Very few can match the voice of Johnny Cash, and certainly Joaquin Phoenix couldn’t. Remember this young boy’s name because he should become famous sometime or another. Hopefully he will get off the streets and make it because of his talent. Yet, I suppose all aspiring artists have to start somewhere!

I’ve been to this city before and it isn’t much different than other big cities, if fact, somebody said Seattle was over-rated, overcast and over caffeinated. It’s a fast-paced life where everybody is in a hurry to spend their hard-earned or inherited money. It’s a place where there are all kinds: There are lonely people, pan-handlers galore, druggies, and crazies, and a few short steps away are luxury stores where rich folks can buy a purse which will cost more than what some of those people on the street will pay in rent for a year. Some people smile, but there are many who aren’t friendly, and that’s big-city life. But, if you can navigate through all that, there are some great sea-food places to sample.

Travel is getting such a hassle anymore and the lure of seeing new cities is waning as I get older. At the airports they get their jollies feeling you for alleged guns or whatever. It’s a process that is more demeaning than anything else. I had three knee operations and all those changes set off all the bells and whistles at the airport. It’s not good at times.

At this point in my life, I think much prefer rez life. Plus, being away from family, my adopted dog, the couple of friends I have and the comforts of home aren’t good either, so that is my goal for 2011, besides losing a couple of pounds, is to stay closer to the rez. But, like all New Years Resolutions…

Sunday Morning Coming Down

2010-11-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

The holiday is winding down and I got some more work done around the house, I even walked my dog Koda a few times in the park. If you ever come to our reservation, you won't hurt my feelings if you don't stop and visit me, but make a point to go see our park. It just gets better every year. If only they would put up a park bench or two for the older walkers to rest their old bones, it would be better yet.

In sports, KU lost big-time to Mizzou yesterday and ends a poor season with little promise for next year or at least that's what I saw watching that game. Holton lost in the 4-A State Championships but they had a great season. Silver Lake won the 3-A State Championship. Those are two local teams in this area. I also watched the OU-OSU game last night and those big backs could put the fear in people. They looked impressive. I thought boy that would be hell to try and bring one of those big OSU backs down after they got a full head of steam going.

Oh, when I was talking about KU, I meant the football team. The basketball team is 6-0 and just won a tournament out in Sin City against Arizona 87-79. They are going to be a rock solid team. I'm afraid they won't win the national championship, but will make this another interesting 30-win season. When the twins were sitting on the bench, the rest of the team stepped up to the plate and maintained. They are deep on the bench and this will help in future games. Jay Bilas of ESPN said they will the best team in the Big 12, but I say they have to work for it and they will. I just hope Selby doesn't upset the chemistry when he starts playing December 18.

Oh, whatever happened to last year's superstars: Collins is buried deep on the bench in Charlotte and Aldrich just got sent to the developmental league (oh, lets call a spade a spade, he was sent to the minors). Maybe they weren't as good as we thought, huh?

Monday morning, golf and pow-wows!

2010-11-22T04:33:00.000-08:00

Steve McDonald,one of our tribal members who can play the game of golf better than 99.5 % of the people in this tribe has won another tournament. This time in San Jacinto, California. He won the National Native American Senior Open Championships with a 213, 3 under. Steve has now won more than 35 sanctioned PGA sectional tournaments and eight FNGA professional championships. Steve has done well and works as the golf pro at Lake Shawnee. He's always been encouraging to me by doing so well. He is an asset to our tribe. In racist circles, they would say he is a credit to his race!

The We te se pow-wow went well. We, as a rule, go sit in a corner and watch from afar. They had several specials that didn't take as long as usual and people got to dance to their hearts content. They honored a couple of veterans who are gone now: Joe Hale and Teno Masquat. I knew both of them and they were good people. It is good for the families to see people still care and remember their relatives. Also my sister was head lady dancer and I helped by getting in the way. She handed out gifts to the older women there and that too is good. She didn't have a honor song, so I didn't have to do my shuffle out there in public, which is good. My grandson Pat kos shuk said: "im rich because i got money from wa-ta-sa pow-wow and feeding my dog $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$"

We have a short work week this week with the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching. It's turkey time. In the Potawatomi way of life, we've already had our fall ceromonies and that is our thankgiving when we thank our Creator for giving us life, health and for what we received in our gardens. But a true Indian will also not pass up on a good meal, hence the bird has to go.

A Review that might help somebody!

2010-11-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

I read this article in USA Today about ways to stop youth violence. I find this story more than interesting because when we were growing up, there was no information like this available and we indulged in many of the things mentioned in this story. That was not good!

The story covered the efforts of Miami running back Ronnie Brown who wants to make young people aware of the things they can do to prevent more violence. Brown said “All across the country, kids are resorting to violence. It’s becoming easier for them to make those decisions, and it’s sickening.” Brown wants to give back to his community and often talks to different school groups in his area. His own life was difficult. His parents were sent to prison for drug offenses when he was only 6 years old and he had to live with different relatives. Adversity made him stronger and now he wants to change the mentality that is so prevalent in the inner cities. In a sense, these presentations are therapeutic to Brown.

The economy or socioeconomic conditions are a factor. The article said “there’s more stress at home, and it rolls down. People are losing jobs, and losing homes. That goes from adults and families to the kids to schools.” A simple thing like free breakfast at school can relieve stress among young people.

Of course, all the violence isn’t confined to the inner cities, look at Columbine High School in 1999. Reservations aren’t exempt either. Look at the Red Lake shooting not long ago. The article said “We believe to shoot up a school, use drugs, have an eating disorder, it’s all coming from the same place: pressure inside of you.” And bullying is viewed as a method of releasing pressure. Some classify more than 10 types of bullies such as control freaks, and guilt-trip bullies as well as cyber-bullying which is now happening.

23 Ways to Stop Youth Violence

1. Walk away (Brown said “I think a lot of times, kids think, ‘if I walk way, I’m not tough, but if you walk away, you get to go on with the rest of your day…it’ really about giving yourself a chance to be successful throughout the rest of your lfe)”

2. See the big picture (for example a curfew allows young people to be indoors where they are safe and not getting hit by a stray bullet, but the young person who can’t see the big picture said that violence will only start earlier).

3. Give respect to get respect

4. Think before you act

5. Learn to manage your anger (a violent incident can occur in a split second – and forever change the lives of perpetrators and victims).

6. Talk to someone you trust

7. Listen & understand

8. What would your family say?

9. Tell the truth

10. Speak up

11. Exhibit tolerance

12. Speak with a professional

13. Lead, don’t follow

14. Adjust your attitude

15. Remember your faith

16. Think about your future

17. Know the consequences

18. Get involved at school

19. Who are you really hurting?

20. Stay in School

21. Surround yourself with positive people

22. Believe in yourself

23. Negotiate (anger management classes teach compromise and prevention).

Early Monday morning, politics and basketball!

2010-11-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

It’s Monday and I can’t but help notice that the Republicans haven’t solved the fiscal crisis yet, plus Obama didn’t solve anything by going overseas for ten days. I rarely watch Saturday Night Live but I did over the weekend and they carried on about how much America owes China. This guy was playing the Chinese leader and he kept asking Obama if he brought a check to pay off the debt and the Obama impersonator kept stuttering and said it will happen soon. Then the Chinese guy start getting graphic and said America was going to put it to them. It was a funny skit, but I suppose politicians will find the answer at some point in time.

Since I did my Fall clean-up around my place this long week-end I’ve decided I will watch the tube again tonight. Of course, we have little choice since it gets dark about 5:00 pm. KU plays Valparaiso at 7 o’clock, so that will occupy my evening. I hate to get too up-beat on KU basketball again. They look good so far. You never know until they start facing better competition. They have the speed and talent to hang in there with most folks and will only get better when Josh Selby takes the court, although sometimes too much star power can hurt the chemistry of a team. Let do a recap and look at last year! Collin's thought he had to carry the team at all times. The truth of the matter was that he didn't have to and that hurt in the big games. I think KU has to use all their weapons and not rely on one person and this will only make them better when the big dance gets here.

Some of those weapons are Tyshawn Taylor, the Morris twins, Tyrel Reed and Travis Releford who I predict will have a solid year. Some of the bench could start anywhere else especially Jeff Withey a 7”0 center. Taylor can push them up and down the court and while there will be turnovers the overall game will be much better than last year.

It is a wait and see thing for us. Yet, as a general rule KU will win most of its games this year, but I think the disappointments of the past have tempered our expectations somewhat – kinda like politics!

Veterans Day 2010

2010-11-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

For many of us, we wake up to a holiday and a day off, but we can't forget why we are getting that privilege! We coulda woke up under some Communist or Nazi regime and we sure wouldn't be enjoying any of the freedoms we have today and its because of those military veterans who did their part to make this country great and free.

For this reservation, we have veterans left and many young people serving now and we are thankful for them giving up their time to guarantee our freedoms and as a result: We can go to whatever church we want, pray if we want or not, bad-mouth politicians and by gosh, sometimes we can get away with that- It's called free speech. We can move around this great country as we please, but of course under certain financial restraints. Our kids can grow up free of persecution and oppression. We are the only ones who can do that to each other. We have freedoms to do whatever we want as long as it doesn't break the speed limit or offend some moral beast in people. We can drink and smoke as long as it doesn't get out of hand. They attach a few penalties to excesses these days. Well you get the picture.

Our reservation has also lost so many veterans. They were good friends, good people and a real loss to their families, religions, and our tribe. I miss them and think about them everyday and not just on Veteran's day. Some have died fairly young and that doesn't seem like much of a reward. I recently finished a Veterans booklet for the We te se and it will be available to veterans and I'm sure they will have a few extra copies for sale at the We te se Pow-Wow, November 20 in the big city of Holton.

As I wrote this or gathered material for this publication, I was struck with the personal suffering many of these veterans went through and the pain they endured because of their war experiences. Many around them couldn't understand their actions and like so many things in life,we aren't put here to judge others. I think that is reserved for only one person. I have a full appreciation for what they did for us and this country.

Camping 2010

2010-11-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me, Juana and Voncile at a camp, an Indian encampment, last Sunday morning. Mary LeClere and her hiker bunch were camping overnight and Pat ko shuk stayed with Eddie Joe. We went over early to bring some bacon and eggs for the breakfast and if we looked cold, we were. In this picture, we were sitting there looking at the bacon and tators cooking and generally slobbering waiting -I was anyway . It was the best breakfast we’ve had in recent memory, even better than the good ones we’ve grown accustomed to at home. Ain't nothing like the real thing! There had to be over 25 campers and I told them that they were tough Indians to camp all night in the cold. Of course, I'm getting too old to stay out there all night, but my 10 year old grandson can take it and did. He prayed for the breakfast when it was done in our language. This group has been taking five mile hikes the last two weekends but not this time. I guess there was way too much breakfast consumed (Picture by Eddie Joe Mitchell).

Vacation time over!

2010-10-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

My time off work did come to an end. It was unusual to have some free time and have no schedule in front of me to lead me through the day. But, you know what? I managed and wonder why I didn't do this more than once in a blue moon. One time a guy wrote me and said to get retired and see the world away from the reservation. I thought his comment was kinda funny, but maybe I will take his advice sometimes.

In New Mexico, the site of my short get-away, the weatherman on the radio said "I pity those poor idiots who took my advice yesterday and went outdoors." Well, I was one of those guys. I played a round of golf at Isleta Golf Course, an Indian owned business, and the day started out great but steadily went down hill, kinda like my game, and the weather turned bitter cold to where it hurt the hands to hit a golf ball. I enjoyed getting out there. I have to get out more, since we have our own course now, and I can't look too awfully bad all the time.

The big city is something though. A cop was passed out on Highway 25 in his squad car one night. He was arrested for DUI. I read somewhere these guys are suppose to serve and protect. Other news there was a candidate for governor who carried a hand-gun in one of her campaign stops. Granted she has a license to carry the weapon but it must be bad to have to carry a gun in the New Mexico political arena. Damn can you imagine how it would be in the first political disagreement? The Wild, Wild West!

Speaking of the political arena, Meg Whitman another candidate for governor, but in California, has spent $141 million of her own money and the polls are saying she is way behind the old guard Jerry Brown. Does that make sense to spend that kind of money for a job that probably pays $150,000 a year? It goes back to power and all of its ambiance.

And in sports, one comedian said a OSU wide receiver was caught driving 92 mph while drunk. Sounds like the guy is ready to head to the next level. Crazy huh? Some of these guys are so good they can get away with about anything.

The big city traffic is hectic, the lifestyle is a bit different than home, the down-town area looks fairly dangerous and you can't find a wal mart anywhere. Of course, travel is a big change to normal life so it really isn't anything to cry about.

Notes from somewhere in New Mexico

2010-10-26T03:23:00.000-07:00

I flew to Albuquerque New Mexico on the first day of my vacation. It was pretty darn cold and windy and the ride in on the big bird was rocky. I wanted to tag along with my wife. She is attending a conference and I will do absolutely nothing, although I thought about hitting the golf course and brought my golf clubs. Southwest Airlines is the last airline in existence that allows two free bags, so I brought them along. I much prefer to mess up with my own clubs rather than rented ones. Some people buy clubs every year. I don't. I've had mine for ten to twelve years. There's nothing wrong with them, I just got to learn how to hit them right. I also want to see if my luck at the casino is any better here than it is in Kansas, but I sure doubt that.

Normally I will take a day off or two at a time and do some work around the house, so this is the first "vacation" I've taken in a spell But first I have to adjust to the time change, because I got up at 3:15 am on my first day here,when its 4:15 back home. As I get older I notice I get up earlier. One morning I got up at 2:15 and any way you cut it, that is way too early.

I want to play the tourist role and maybe go here and there and take pictures. I brought my tourist outfit, you know the golf shirt, golf pants along with a hat and camera, so I should stand out, but I really need to get a bright, bright shirt to stand out more. When I go somewhere alone, I rarely go see any sights, usually stay at the hotel and the area close by. Fun guy, huh? This hotel is six miles from the nearest casino and that is good. Usually the temptatation of those little devil machines is too close to my room and they whisper to me to throw all my money into them. Isn't it hell to be human sometimes? If I don't win on this trip, I will give it up for a good long while, but haven't we heard that song before?

Also I've seen a lot of Indians around here, must be a reservation nearby!

Monday morning thoughts!

2010-10-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Damn what is going on? The chiefs of Kansas City fame have won four games already! Missouri beat OU in football. KU and KSU lost again! The Rangers are in the World Series and I'm on vacation this week.

But a fast story: This guy I worked with said one time his church has a bunch of their congregation going on a trip and posted this fact in the church paper and when they got back somebody had broke into all of their homes. About now, you are wondering what the moral of the story is: most importantly, don't tell anybody your out of the neighborhood. But I have somebody staying at my house and the tribal police go by once in a blue moon so everything will be safe on the home-front.

I rarely take any time off. I thought why the hell not, so I did. The weekend was horrible since I was sick the whole time. The flu is making its rounds here and I'm not exempt. I'm better today. My grandson Pat ko shuk went on a 5 mile hike with a group of Potawatomis yesterday. He came back in a pretty good mood so it must not have been as hard for him as I thought. It sure beats seeing him sit in front of that tv all day. His Uncle Eddie took care of him, I hear.

In the local news, three young people offed a guy near Topeka West High School over the weekend. Big city news but these three young people will have plenty of time to think about this incident in jail for a good number of years. The answer is pull the trigger first these days. It isn't, but it seems that way.

Oh, if you need your lawn mowed, let me know. Oh, that's right the mowing season is officially over.

Police brutality, baseball and politics!

2010-10-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

I opened up the paper today and saw where the Topeka Police Chief was handing out some award to the cop who got drunk last year and shot these two Mexican guys in Topeka. Off-duty work, I guess. Damn I thought is this Topeka’s answer to the immigration problem: shoot um up, and hell with deporting them. Plus, later give the the deserving soul an award. Hopefully that isn’t the way it is and the guy was reformed from a year ago and did some great things for his community. I was afraid to write this cause my skin is more dark than light and today it’s all about repercussions. Too late, it’s already written.

The World Series is looming. It looks like it might be the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants in the series. I get into world series pots and hope to win at least one, but last year I didn’t. I guess that Josh Hamilton of the Rangers is a big dog and can hit the ball a country mile. I hope later that he isn’t on some growth hormones or steroids like the bonds guy. It’s been awhile since either team has made it this far. In the case of Frisco, in fact, the last time was when bonds was google-eyed on steroids. The good thing is we will be able to see Willie Mays in the stands again. A bit older now, but still a draw! Baseball is a tainted game because of the steroids but it may come back in time.

And there is only two weeks left for us to endure all those political ads on t.v. I will be glad when it’s over. Hell, the Republicans hate the Democrats. The Democrats hate the Republicans and the Devil hates us all.

Fall Update!

2010-10-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

I haven’t put anything on the ol blog lately, mostly because I’ve been slightly busy these last few days. Let’s see, I went to a regulators conference in Wisconsin for a few days, came back and attended our Fall Ceremony and raised my hand in a General Council meeting last Saturday to be recorded as a member in attendance and in between all that I cleaned up my garden and mowed my yard for the last time this season. Oh, I also did some carpentry work at my daughter’s place. I still think I can be a carpenter after all these years. Her floor is fixed. I put in new 2x6s and plywood and I guaranteed the job for life or she will get her money back. Oh hell, I forgot it was one of those free things you do for your kids.

Travel to Green Bay was adventurous. They first cancelled my flight in KCI, saying something about a door wouldn’t close. I guess they didn’t want to take a chance of us passengers blowing out so they made us get off and then a six hour wait started for my next flight. You gotta love flying! The meeting and casino was good along with the people there, but it’s always better to get home. I don’t travel that much these days, but the airports and hotel rooms all look the same and the news coming from the tv and the newspapers are troubling to say the least. For instance, the news told of a highway patrolman going 126 mph and texting at the same time. What happened? He got his message sent, but in the process he killed two pretty teenage girls. This awful chain of events deprived those young kids of a future! I think Oprah is right – texting while driving needs to go.

While in Green Bay, and for a brief couple of hours I played tourist. I was able to go check out Lambeau Field, home of Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, Wilie Wood, Max McGee and a whole bunch of others who made the place famous and to say nothing of bringing world championships to a relatively small city. It was also the first professional football stadium I stepped foot in. I’m not much on professional sports but I did want to see this place and glad I went. Quite a few years back I had the honor of meeting Max McGee. He gave me a signed picture of him catching a touchdown in the first super bowl and gave me a autographed football of the Green Bay Packers. That picture and football remain prized possessions. Max died a few years ago at 72 when he was clearing leaves out of his gutter and fell off his roof. He must have believed in doing his own work, kinda like me, but of course I didn’t catch any passes to speak of.

I’m a fairly lucky guy to be able to help in our religious services and I try to be dependable in this area. I figure I need all the help I can get at the bitter end and can only hope the good out-weights the bad. Sometimes though people remember the bad in people and not the good but that is another chapter for another day. I also made it to our quarterly general council meeting waiting to give a report but we lost a quorum shortly after everybody filled their bellies. It was a mild meeting. I've been to some real wing-dingers in the past. We never had shoes being thrown like they did at Bush, but it was close at times.

It’s always sad to see our services end and the same way with my garden and yard work. I don’t know what I will do with my extra free time. Maybe it’s time to build some stuff indoors and see if I can give it away to somebody or I could sit around and count the days until Kansas University basketball begins. Oh, that's right I haven't got over the disappointment of last season yet. As Jethro said "I'll conjure on it."

Columbus Day 2010

2010-10-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

Columbus Day is said to be another reason for banks to close and the take the day off. Our tribe used to take the day off, too. We didn’t really honor the guy, we celebrated the day off, but the new agers decided it wasn’t politically correct anymore, so now we work on that sacred day. I’ve been kinda sickly and thought about calling in sick, but that would looked like I supported the Italian guy Columbus.

Some discreet guy said somebody had to bring disease to America and maybe that’s true, but I bet those early Indians didn’t plan on dying in such huge numbers because of those diseases. There was no next time for those Indian greeters on the East coast, and I bet they wished they hadn’t been so gracious to these immigrants (talk about a need for stricter immigration laws, huh?) . Another radical line of thought said thanks for the cholera, but please leave your money at the casino and it's true. Thank goodness we survived to rake in the proceeds!

Martie and the Boy!

2010-09-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is my girl Martie and my grandson Pat ko shuk. They took this picture at Family Night or "Sunday on Monday Family Night." He goes to school at Royal Valley Elementary School and is in the Fourth Grade. They also had ice cream at this event and played three games of uno and Pat ko shuk won two out of the three games. They asked Kek to go along but she was too tired to mess with them. But they stopped by the golf course and missed the golf lessons offered by Notah Begay but saw him leaving in a car. They still were able to get a t-shirt and a hat. The golf course opened up today for tribal members, but I stayed away for fear of a vicious attack for playing golf on a work-day so I stayed at my work-station.

Writing, softball and Joe Hale!

2010-09-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

A young friend of mine, who I will leave nameless for his own protection told me that he was the only one that reads my blog. I told him I was wondering who that was who showed up on my counter. Such is the life of a tormented writer - all you can do is hope that somebody reads your stuff. I don't want to say, you pray somebody reads your material, because that wouldn't sound right. Maybe I should use more big words, huh?

We made a journey to a place called Salt Lake City to watch our daughter and her softball team play ball in a National Indian tournament. They raised all of their expense money. I think that is great. Help yourself if you can, if you can't let the tribe pay for it. They did well for a first time facing this kind of competition. They ended up 2-2 for the tournament, but now they know what has to be done on their next trip. I enjoyed watching the games and it made me miss seeing our old team play.

I had to cut my trip short by a day. I came back to the rez to help with Joe Hale's funeral. Joe died at age 62.
I've known Joe and his boys for years. I watched his boys grow up and through his teachings, they picked up the songs fast. They are known as top of the line singers on the pow-wow circuit, but I remember them most for
helping us with the songs in our religion. That will be Joe Hale's legacy -teaching and passing along the traditions of our way of life.

In his earlier days, he went off to Vietnam as a member of the U.S. Marine Corp. During one encounter with the Viet Cong, He was hit in the upper left arm by rifle fire, and was stunned by the impact and was knocked to the ground, but survived. Joe said later that those were scary moments and was afraid to look at his arm because he felt like there was nothing there. That was in 1966. He was sent back to the United States after this incident, recuperated and finished out his service time. As fate would have it, Joe's brother Victor died in Vietnam in 1968 and his cousin Martin Jim, Jr died there in 1971.

It was a hard go for Joe for a good number of years, he had inner struggles that few can know and understand. His life was similar to the life of my brother Larry. Both left here young boys and the Vietnam war changed them into vastly different people. Thankfully, the inner struggles of seeing war,death and seeing their own blood flow in front of them leveled off in time, but both died fairly young. To me, that wasn't much of a reward for serving our country but we have little say in that department. Now the only thing left is the memory of knowing these good people. That is part of the cruel realities of life on an Indian reservation.

Football 2010

2010-09-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Zach Wamego with his Aunt Lisa Wamego and Wabnum. Zach and Wabnum are my nephews, while Lisa is my sister. This picture was taken after Coffeyville Junior College beat Garden City Junior Colllege. Zach is 6"6 and 320 pounds and plays right guard and is gradually working into a starting position. He played at Royal Valley High School. Zach is the son my late brother Mike.

Retirement is postponed!

2010-09-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

I was ready to retire in a few short years, but now Obama wants to raise the retirement age. The full benefit age will be 70. Of course, his popularity will decline further if he were to implement this idea. Old people get awful mad when somebody tries to dismantle anything dear to them and historically politicians stay from any changes at all in social security because of this political fallout. So the lesson for politicians is to pick on less popular programs and they'll last a long time in politics. Oh, yeah their retirement package is pretty awsome, so they don't have to worry at all. The only thing they will have to worry about is will somebody pick them up at the end of the day when their kids put them on a park bench and let them fend for themselves.

Damn, I might be lucky to hang on that long anyway. To be truthful, I’m lucky to be even considering retirement. I seen so many of my relatives and friends die young and I mean damn young. I guess so many of us thought we were lucky to reach 30 and anything after that were considered bonus years. For the longest time, Indians never lived long enough to worry about any retirement. I think the life expectancy for Indians was 49 years old and it might be a tad higher now. In addition, Indians always had low paying jobs, so any real social security was minimal and there wasn't anything called a 401 K for years and years. Getting old for many Indians only promised harder times if they didn't have somebody to take care of them.

I could get up a list of things I want to do before I kick off at age 71. Isn’t that the way it works, as soon as you retire, you die instantly. What could that list be? I have no ambitions to see Hawaii and its pretty beaches, don’t really care if I see Phoenix again, and oh maybe it would be nice to see Europe. My brother Larry was stationed in Germany after he left Vietnam and saw quite a few European countries and wrote me what he saw there, so I guess it would be like de ja vu, if I did go there. So I guess I can rule that out, plus who wants to figure out currency exchanges?

I suppose I could settle for taking my grandchildren to a few places in the lower 48. I saw Alaska and it was right pretty. Sarah Palin was still in high school before she become a rock star that she is today. I didn’t see her on that trip, but I saw some moose, bear and a bunch of eagles. I can't go too far South, I might get deported and who wants to see western Kansas again? I don't want to see the oil fields of Texas, Louisiana and Florida, thanks to Exxon or was it some other company who did all that damage?

Probably my best bet would be to stay close to home and watch all the theatrics and drama here. That's worth the price of admission to this reservation, or for that matter any reservation. The cost of living is a lot better than most places. There are some really good people here and that ain't true everywhere, so I think I'll stay here and watch the grass grow in my yard and garden. It was Mickey Mantle or somebody who
said “if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”

KU rises from the dust!

2010-09-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

Is it too late to get back on that KU bandwagon? Please forgive me for giving up on them when they lost to Abilene Tech last week. I don't know what got into me. It could have been the weather or maybe some force from outer space made me think like that. Maybe it was the pills I took for my hurt foot! I don't know, but they have made my football forecasting abilities look bad to the educated and uneducated world of sports watchers.

Today, KU beat the #15 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 28-25 at Memorial Stadium. They put in a new quarterback and went back to the old offense that made them famous in the past and played like they were suppose to. The last time KU beat a ranked team at home was in the early 1980s when they beat OU. I was going to that game but decided to listen to one our general council meetings and I kicked myself for weeks after for missing that upset.

Who do I have to petition to get back on the band-wagon? It sure ain't Lew Perkins, he left on the same midnight express Mangino took, and he had a suitcase filled to the brim with $2 million in severance pay (for you math people out there, that is $ 5,400 a day or so for doing absolutely nothing for the next year). I guess the only thing to do is apologize to my readers for making a mistake so there it is - I'm officially back on the KU bandwagon!

Old Songs and Musicians

2010-09-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

Let's look around and see what is going on: The homes are burning in Colorado. There is flooding in Texas. They are going to burn some Korans in Florida. Fall is fast approaching. People are continually mad over the state of politics, and the Killer a.k.a .Jerry Lee Lewis turned 75 years old the other day.

The ol boy is still going strong after all these years. Well maybe not real strong but he’s still going. I saw him in a Las Vegas show with Chuck Berry back in the late 1980s. It was a helluva show and it seemed like both were getting old then. I always said I got to see those two before they kicked off. I have to admit, it is amazing that he’s still cranking out the sounds at his age. But getting back to that show, I thought it was something with him up there banging away on that piano and singing one song after the other. He was great and it was the same with Chuck Berry.

I watched movies about these two after that and read some articles too. Both led fairly rough lives indulging in all the temptations of life. We know the routine: wine, women and song. Hell maybe some of us did the same thing! Both had up and down music careers. Jerry Lee Lewis got married six times. Whoa, six times. I thought somebody said one per lifetime! The life of a musician! As most hard livin folks, he almost died a few times and lived through a bunch of adversity but said all that just rolled off his back. Good words for all of us to live by.

The Golf Course Next Door!

2010-09-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve watched the golf course progress for the last year on my way to work. Let me tell you this promises to be one of the best golf courses in this area, if not all of Kansas.

I’ve had the opportunity to tour it several times now and it’s breathtaking at times and will be one of the toughest courses anybody would want to play. It will only get better looking as the years go by once it’s properly established. There’s a 600 yard par 5 and some long par 3s that will be hard to par. I like the way the course is laid out. The front nine is open and the back nine is narrow and has sloping fairways. It looks like the back nine is carved out of the timber. There are creeks crossing several fairways. It will be decision time for many wild swingers, lay up or go for it. It will be a risk reward type course. I only saw the U.S. Open on t.v. but some of the layout is similar – a native grass is growing off the fairways and let me tell you it won’t be easy getting out of that stuff.

So whoever designed this course needs an A plus. It will add some powerful words to the title Prairie Band Casino and Resort. Oh, some good words need to be said for all those young guys working out there all summer in the searing heat. They deserve some kind of pat on the back. As the course nears completion it will be worth the trip to our rez to play.

The Night the Wheat Stood Still in Kansas

2010-09-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

The KU football team got a good old beating from North Dakota State or Montana Tech 6-3 the other night. Please don't be mistaken it wasn't Michigan State,so its promises to be a bleak year for KU fans again. It's bad enough that we have suffered nightmares from KU's early exit in the NCAA baskeball tournament a few months back and now this. Where are you Nolan Cromwell when we need you?

KU hired a new coach, a better players coach than the last guy, Mangino. He promised to try and win every game and not cuss anybody, but the operative word is "try." Mangino is living on some golf course retreat in Florida and saying "and they thought they'd do better without me. They also thought I was a bit rough around the edges, but I could deliver a win once in awhile and I'd be damned if we lost to some little school by the Canadian border." Of course that's all speculation but I imagine he is laughing as he is learning the game of golf. Mangino does have the time since KU paid him a bunch of money to leave town on the midnight express.

It may be that KU will be lucky to win one game this year and will probably lose to those farmers out at KSU and we will never hear the end of that, I assure you. We have low expecations,kind of like when people take political office,but damn why can't we win against the lower division schools? We know KU can't compete with schools like Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas in recruiting, but at least we should be able to grab a couple of players from Southern Cal, who will serve some probation time for paying Reggie Bush a pile of money while he was winning the Heisman Trophy. Oh, hell they all do that, don't they?

In Ancient Greece or was it Athens, when somebody was caught stealing they cut off both hands. It wasn't because they were stealing it was because they were caught. That's the way it should be in college football or maybe in life.

Monday Evening News

2010-08-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up and read in the paper that Tiger only won $151,000 in the Barclay tournament and he probably looked at it and thought "chump change," but life does go on. And Fidel in that little country south of the Florida Keys said in an interview that "he was on deaths door, but he came back." Bet those guys in D.C. didn't like hearing that. Locally, the blonde on the morning weather said we are going to get rain this week which won't hurt my feelings none.

After a day at the sweat-shop, we went into the city to run some errands. Imagine running errands on my own time! Well anyway I was driving down the street and had to stop at a red light and there was this van with two bumper stickers one it. One said "I slept like a Democrat last night, lied on one side and then lied on the other." I reckon that tells you Kansas is a Republican State but in case you had doubts the other sticker said "Work hard, there are millions on welfare." It's been awhile since I seen some good stickers.

We stopped at the grocery store and I left off my wife at the front door like a good guy would and I went to park. I walked back to the store and I seen these two good looking girls go by and pretty soon they stopped and kissed each other on the lips. I thought "I don't quite know what's happening here," and being the country boy that I am, I thought maybe it was a momma letting her kid off for work. But also being the observant guy that I am, I also noticed they were kissing for quite a long time, so I figured "geez this must be the changing times I heard about" or maybe it was the song "the times are achangin."

I guess it beat staying home and smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo. Isn't city-life something?

Hung Jury Time Again!

2010-08-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Rod Blagojevich of Chicago fame, David Wittig and guy named Lake of the local Westar Energy Company have something in common. Blagojevich was accused of trying to get some financial mileage out of Obama’s vacated Senate seat, while Wittig and Lake were accused of looting the local electric company out of millions. Each case ended in a hung jury. In the Topeka case, the prosecutors didn’t push for a retrial but in Illinois they are going after Blagojevich again. More than likely Blagojevich will only get a slap on the wrist or if he goes to jail, he will end up in a country club prison in the East.

These cases have drug on for months, if not years, and you can imagine the millions of dollars the attorneys have made? The lawyers come from elite law firms and are usually the best money can buy for these high profile guys. In the Westar case, the company had to pay much of the legal cost, so you can expect a rate increase soon. They develop a legal strategy that puts a wad of bills in their pockets. They drag these cases on by calling for expensive expert witnesses; they throw in some character witnesses who bring tears to your eyes; and the judges grant their request for continuation time after time. All of these legal maneuvers will eat up a whole bunch of tax-payers dollars. By the time they are done, hell they could make Hitler look like an innocent school boy. And can you imagine the time the judge and jurors have to sit there and endure this nonsense and in time all they can do is pray for it all to end. Money talks, my friend because these high priced lawyers get their clients off the proverbial hook.

All of this doesn’t bode well for the justice system. The average criminal has little money to hire an attorney to defend their interest and can usually count on being jailed or put on some kind of probation for extended periods of time. Nobody makes them look like innocent school boys. In South Dakota the penal system is represented by Indians in huge numbers. If they can’t get a job there then crime usually happens. What they should do is create some kind of public works units (chain-gangs) out of prisoners to help with county and state budget shortfalls because they sure won’t get rehabbed in prison.

Most of the people have to live with the mistakes of life or die in jail thinking about it, but for not for these guys: Blagojevich said he is running for governor again when he gets out this mess and Wittig will be back in the front row for the Kansas University basketball games. No, “justice for all” isn’t really there!

2010-08-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

The Summer season is winding down. I started to take some of my corn stalks out and tilled some of the ground up until it got hotter than a pistola. The politics is pretty hot around here too, but that is another matter handled by people much smarter than myself. It's a situation where nobody will win, but it is the glass-house of politics.

Usually nothing happens around here. I usually sit on my front porch and wait for a car to go by, so I can wave at them. Isn't that exciting? But yesterday they were having a cultural retreat at the Rock Building and I was asked to come talk about the history of our tribe and some culture. It was for a group of young people. I try and limit my public appearances anymore. It makes me work much too hard at remembering the facts of history. I would much sooner work in my yard or hit the garage sale circuit but the heat kinda limits that. If nothing else, staying home is fine too.

I told the young people how I got involved in writing and sharing the stories of our people. It started over twenty years ago. I would interview some of our older people about some of their life experiences. Some were good and some were bad for them, but at least I got to record it. I always figure someday somebody will want to know how our life was here on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation. I never claimed to be a historian or a writer, I just want to tell a story. I think it was worthwhile to do all that work over the years. And these young people wanted to hear some of these stories and that was good. I told them I did quite a few presentations but very rarely was asked to return because people didn't want to hear about some of the terrible things that happened to the Potawatomis over the years, but we were a stubborn people and survived.

Scientific way of voting in Indian Elections

2010-08-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

When I was much younger I attended the local U - Washburn University and got a degree in political science and lacked six hours of getting a history degree too, but that was a coon's age ago and is, as they say, academic. We learned all the theory and read about how the political machine works in this country or how it's suppose to work. It was a good learning experience. Sometimes I did feel out of place being the only Indian in shouting distance, but after awhile nobody paid attention to me. Books don't prepare you for the real aspects of political life but it helped. I think I should have minored in psychology because you run into some real odd balls in life and that could have helped in explaining human behavior. So now I try and compensate and watch CSI and Criminal Minds to help me understand a tad bit better. I also read all the time to help me understand a little more about the world we live in, but this isn't why I put all this in here. I want to explain one method of voting on an Indian reservation to you. This isn't something I learned in books or on t.v. or the Topeka Capital Journal, I simply made it up.

Today it's election time here on the rez again. There is a run-off. Some where along the line our tribe decided to use primaries. I guess it was done to nullify those with big families, but they still get in there. In this particular election, I know both candidates well, so I'm going to use the scientific method of deciding Indian elections. Heads I vote for Jimmy, tails I vote for Sogi. Here goes the coin toss.........and the winner is..................

2010 Potawatomi Gathering Notes

2010-08-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Potawatomi Gathering is now history. It was held in Shawnee, Oklahoma and hosted by the Citizen's Band of Potawatomi. One memory that will stick for all the participants is the oppressive heat. Temperatures were in the high 90s and low 100s and the heat index was 105-100 every day. That in any language is hot. One day the public announcer said "there are showers everywhere in Oklahoma, but not here. It's suppose to be in 98 degrees today. Welcome to our cold front." It's the Oklahoma heat I remember from past visits.

On the way down I saw a Confederate flag flying in one yard. I thought I'm surely not that far south, although I get lost easily on the road. I saw a Kickapoo Nation sign; a Sac and Fox Nation sign and a Iowa Nation sign and for a second, I thought I was north of my reservation, but I guess there are other bands of them, too. We have nine bands of Potawatomi scattered all over.

The first two days I attended the leadership sessions which allowed me to get out of the intense heat. Most of the days involved the chairs discussing some of their tribes accomplishments. For instance, the Citizen Band have a RV park, golf course, a concrete business with 8 trucks, a grocery store that grosses $50 million a year, run their own clinic and are in the process of building a 240 room hotel by their casino. Rocky Barrett said Shawnee has had three motels pop up after the casino went up. He also said a kick-boxing event held at their casino was a huge draw and made a big profit for the tribe.

The tribes discussed some joint ventures. One was a 7-tribe progressive game that has promise according to many in the room and forming a company that would replace worn out casino chairs among other ideas. They scheduled a follow-up meeting September 21-22 in Michigan to discuss logistics of any joint ventures. Another idea is to form a charter to self-fund medical insurance for tribal and casino employees. Something like this could save a bundle of money for each tribe. There were many good ideas discussed and some of the tribes are on the right track with their economic development ideas.

In one session they asked me to talk about culture. I talked in general terms and said there is no right way and no wrong way in our Indian religions. I know better to go into details. I'm not a fool. That's been done in the past and people get mad. What's the fastest way to get people mad? Talk about religion and politics. So I told them the most important thing in our lives is to give thanks to our Creator for what he has given us and that is through prayer. Prayer helps us all during the good and bad times of life. I talked a little about language and again it's not the method of learning but the most important thing is the ability to retain and use the words on a daily basis. There were 125 people in the room so hopefully they took something away positive from the people who talked in this session, not necessarily from me.

While all this went on indoors, my grandson Pat ko Shuk swam in the Citizen Band pool and played putt-putt golf. He did some fishing and said he almost caught a blue gill. One gal at the motel asked him "ya all code." He didn't understand her southern accent. I guess she was asking him if he was cold. We got a kick out of that exchange. The people in the area were friendly. Since there are over 240,000 Indians living in the state, we weren't anything out of the ordinary.

The Citizen Band provided meals and had pow-wow sessions to keep everybody occupied and allowed plenty of time for people to visit each other and/or to sneak off to the small casino located close by. There was a golf tournament, horse shoe tournament, volleyball tournaments going on during the days. All of this kept people busy and "by the end of the day," as Hot Rod Stewart sang one time, people were pretty exhausted and if it wasn't the activities then it had to be the heat because it was a scorcher. I'm glad though that the gathering is headed toward Michigan next year where it should be much cooler than the last two years.

Economic news of the day!

2010-08-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a headline in the news today: An employee who had been asked to resign went on a shooting rampage Tuesday at a family-owned beer distributing company in Manchester, Conn, killing eight people and wounding others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

This again shows how awful the economy is today. Sure some people are just plain messed up to do something like this, but you wonder if the possibility of going without could have played into this decision. People who lose their jobs are confronted with losing their American Dream; losing their homes; and a hundred other things associated with in leading a normal life. Thus, fear is a factor and the papers are filled with stories of how people can't get another job except maybe at McDonalds.

But actions like this shooting isn't the answer. But, it does seem like shooting others is the answer for far too many people anymore. Everyone around them has to suffer. These eight people in this story had families. They were planning a future for them. Now these next few days these families will have the ordeal of taking care of funeral arrangements.

We also read in the papers about how the big companies are hoarding profits and not doing any new hiring. That too is wrong. A recent USA article said companies are sitting on a pile of cash, enough to pay 2.4m workers $70,000 for 5 years - yet they're not hiring. They say the answer is for everybody to spend, spend and the economy will get alright, but when big companies don’t hire that notion is defeated. The big bonuses continue for the top executives and the worker gets none or gets fired. That notion is wrong too. Where is that economic recovery plan and have we hit any benchmarks yet? It doesn’t seem like it, does it?

Old Pictures Again!

2010-08-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Tribal member Sharie Landis gave me this copy of a pow-wow scene from the 1960s. In the war bonnet is Frank Nioce. I seen this picture a couple of years ago at one of our General Council meetings. It was the usual attack, counter-attack day, but in the middle of all this fire, I asked these girls if I could get a copy of this picture they were lookin at and they gave me a copy the other day and I'm thankful they shared with me. It always makes you wonder what happened to such beautiful beadwork and a bonnet such as this. I didn't get all the name of the people in this picture but when I do I will add them to this blog entry.

Back in those days, color shots were kinda rare so I'm lucky to add this picture to my collection. Frank lived a long life and was a tribal council member. He lived in Hoyt, Kansas.

Baseball thoughts

2010-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

I’ve been watching recent baseball developments. On the major league level A-Rod has gone six games without hitting his 600th homerun, but who really cares. All those homers were enhanced by steroids, maybe not at this moment, but in the past this is true, by A-Rod's own admission. It’s hard for me to recognize his accomplishments and Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds too because of the steroid issue. Mickey Mantle didn’t have to use steroids to do what he did, neither did Babe Ruth or Henry Aaron. Andre Dawson was inducted into the Hall of Fame the other day and he made it there because he did it right and he implored kids to do it right too in his acceptance speech.

Another baseball issue is aluminum bats used by young kids and others up to the college level. It used to be nothing but wooden bats. Now the ball coming off the bat sounds different and the ball has more speed. Kids are getting hurt with some going into a coma from the hit. This is happening all over the country. They need to get rid of aluminum bats before more get hurt. Can you imagine a major leaguer using these bats, people would get killed. It isn’t old school, its common sense. But what happens is the big companies that make these aluminum bats have big money and can lobby for their concerns and nothing will get done because politicians listen to big money not common sense!

Gathering 2010

2010-07-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

It is in my immediate plans to attend the 2010 Potawatomi Gathering held this year in Shawnee, Oklahoma and hosted by the Citizens Band Potawatomi next week. I haven't been there since the mid-1990s. The heat has held me back from going since. I've been to the other sites over the years. It is enjoyable to see people from the other bands, plus I have some first cousins who live in Shawnee. We rarely see other so we plan on having a cook-out and see who can tell the most lies. It should be a good time. My wife and grandson, Pat ko shuk, are going. He is a guy with a personality and makes friends easy. My other grandsons have promised to guard my homeplace and keep my weeds down.

There is a full schedule with some discussions about gaming the first two days. I will try and try throw in an opinion but sometimes that is hard to do when you have a room full of politicians. They have a golf tournament. The tribe owns their own course and it will be fun to try it out. I might try and get to their language sessions and listen. They are talking about "namings, prayer circles, ghost suppers, funerals, weddings, and seasonal feasts." I know a little about that but I just want to know what others do on their reservations. They have a museum that is well put together and well worth seeing for anybody. Our tribal paper wants me to write an article but I don't know. What can you add after writing about so many other gatherings. This blog is the extent of my writings anymore. Sometimes I add some stuff into my book, plus pictures. I figure somebody will want to see that some day.

A 1998 Channnel 11 interview with Jim Mckinney and Gary Mitchell

2010-07-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

NATIVE AMERICANS: THE PRAIRIE BAND OF THE POTAWATOMI

Gary Mitchell: I've done a lot of traveling in my time. I go to a lot of reservations. I see a lot of Indian people in the cities -- they have no connections. They don't know what the religions are; they don't know what the traditions are; they don't know their language ... and they're lost out there. And we have that here. So the answer isn't out there. It was always here. Any number of people can tell you -- that they've went off and they've looked for things, and it wasn't there; it was here.

Narrator: Although he was sent to an off-reservation boarding school when he was young, Gary Mitchell has lived on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation in northeastern Kansas most of his life. A few years ago, as he pursued a college degree at Washb urn University, he became inspired to write about his tribe's history, eventually publishing a book on the subject.

Mitchell: I guess what happened was I was studying all the politics and history of the white civilization, and it occurred to me one day, I said "well, I don't even know anything about the history of my own tribe." So that was another reason that I got i nto that -- I wanted to do it for my own benefit. As I started writing the book and the articles on the tribe, I wanted my grandchildren some day to be able to read about what happened to our tribe.

Narrator: In his book, Gary tells about how his people once lived in small villages around the southern reaches of the Great Lakes.

Mitchell: The Potawatomi Tribe at one time owned 28 million acres ... or controlled 28 million acres in the Great Lakes. Then when the Manifest Destiny policies started kicking in, then we were pushed westward and our land started diminishing.

Narrator: In 1833, the Potawatomi signed a treaty giving up claims to their ancestral lands in return for 5 million acres in northwestern Missouri. That treaty was soon followed by another that moved them on north into Iowa.

Mitchell: Well then they had another treaty where we came to Kansas in 1846. Then we had 576,000 acres. So all the way through the process, we lost land.

Narrator: Within fifteen years, still another treaty reduced the size of the Kansas reservation from a 30 mile square down to a square of eleven miles on each side. Although the boundaries remain the same today, the Prairie Band and its members control only about a third of this area. Most of it was sold to non-Indians long ago as the federal government continued to implement policies that separated Indians from their land, if not from their traditional culture.

Mitchell: That's been one of our strong points -- we've always been able to adapt to a situation. When we were in the Great Lakes area, when we started to move westward, we've always adjusted. We've tried to keep our traditions, our language. A lot of tribes -- they don't have what we have here. They don't have their languages; they don't have their religions; they don't have any of their traditions or their culture, so we've been real fortunate in that area. That's because of those older people and what they've done for us.

Narrator: Like Gary Mitchell, Jim McKinney was born on the reservation and sent away to a boarding school when he was young. He now lives in a country home not far from the reservation, following a career in the Air Force and a number of years as a Metho dist minister. He continues to work on a Potawatomi language project that he initiated several years ago.

Jim McKinney: I don't remember exactly when it was; I didn't write it down -- I'm thinking about six or seven years ago, I approached my son about the project -- with our speakers fast disappearing, that there was a need to preserve it somehow. And I tho ught, well maybe we can get it on tape or get it written down ... better yet, get it on videotape. So with that idea in mind, I approached my son and said 'with your expertise' ... because his master's was in rhetoric and composition. So with his expert ise in the language, perhaps we could get together and with the fast disappearing of our people, because I think once the language is gone, the culture pretty much is gone with it.

Mitchell: The language is the basis for our prayer. And that's how we communicate with our creator. And that's how we look at it. That's how the elders have always looked at it. And that's I think the key ingredient to all of this. We have to teach t he language in order for us to improve our lives or improve the lives of our children . That's why I've always believed in that strongly .... that we have to maintain those traditions and our language is part of that.

McKinney: We talked about a name for the project -- what would be a good name for it -- preservation and propagation or some such. I hit upon the idea of a Potawatomi word. And that word in Potawatomi is Bwaka. Bwaka means a person who has specific kno wledge in a given area. Also it is used as an acronym for our project here -- Bringing Wisdom and Knowledge About.

Narrator: Jim's son -- Smokey McKinney -- has been his partner on this project. They've taped conversations with native speakers and collected various written materials, with the intent not only of preserving the language, but perpetuating its use. Wit h a small core of collaborators spread across the country, they've established a site on the Internet, which includes such things as an online dictionary. They also intend to develop multimedia software that can be used to teach the language.

McKinney: Then eventually as we teach our children, then we find that there are other folks who have not had the exposure to the language because of the relocation efforts of the early '60s, where they were relocated into the urban areas ... relocated the m just like they relocated us into the boarding schools. Some of them have not had access to their native roots. Some of those are third generation Native Americans or Indians or Potawatomis living in the urban areas that have no idea at all ... about t he language, about any of that. All they read is what has been written in the history books.

Mitchell: A lot of them are coming back now because of a lot of the economic development that's happening. But ... now that the perceived riches of the casinos are coming in, now you have a lot of people wanting to migrate back to the reservation, wherea s before, they all wanted to leave because there was no jobs here.

Narrator: After Congress approved an Indian Gaming Act in 1988, the Potawatomi and other local tribes entered into compacts with the state to bring bingo and casino gambling onto their reservations. In January of 1998, Harrahs opened a new casino and hotel complex on the Prairie Band Reservation.

Mitchell: A man told me once -- he said "I wish we could do it another way." But we've had all these years -- nobody's ever come up with a solution to some of the problems that we have on the reservation. We've never been able to make any improvements to our roads or our buildings cause we never had the money. But now we have that opportunity. And if we do those things, it'll help. But it's not the total answer, again.

McKinney: Many of our people see casino gambling as the panacea -- that's the cure-all; that's a Utopia. That's going to solve all of our problems. It is not.

Mitchell: I don't think that's the answer to all our problems. The answer's always been here. It's been our religion and our tradition and our people. That IS going to be one of our answers in the long run ... not money. So, it'll be a short-term sol ution, and somebody needs to come up with a vision of what are we going to do after? That has to be done -- our vision, however you want to say it. That's what we need to do.

Work Story!

2010-07-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

The oppressing heat drove me indoors the other night so I watched a t.v. show called Dateline. This particular show was about migrant families, who were legal citizens, but went north to follow the harvest. They picked blueberries in Michigan and cucumbers and got paid by the pound. This led to putting their young kids to work. More pounds, more pay. Other times they landed work howing out weeds in middle of acres and acres of produce, but with the introduction of “Round up” this part of the work experience dried up. No weeds, no work. I guess child labor laws don't apply to farm work.

This nomadic life is dictated by the economy in southern Texas. These folks lived on small farms and they had to hit the road for more income. Often times they would sell a cow at auction to finance their 1,500 mile trip to Michigan. They loaded up the family truck with food from the farm and this helped them eat along the way.

It was an interesting story because of the struggle people deal with on a daily basis. These kids would learn how to drive tractors at age 6 and would work all day picking the crop of the day. There was little choice if they wanted to survive. I did say this was in America didn’t I? I can only say I’m thankful my grandchildren don’t have to get out there and do that kind of work. These kids would leave school in early May and return a month or two after school started up again and their schooling suffered. One 11 year old boy was tested and the teacher said he was a full two years behind the rest of his class. One girl in the story did graduate from Michigan State and her motivation was the memory of those long hours in the fields.

Here on the reservation, we grew up dirt poor too, but thankfully we didn’t have to leave home for work like these migrant families had to do in the summer. Around here we found work with local farmers throwing hay for low pay, but did we ever get a big meal at noon time. We weren’t used to that much food. It was something usually associated with a Sunday dinner, but we earned it. As we got older, we worked at Skinner’s Nursery in Topeka for $1.00 an hour on Saturdays. One summer we somehow landed a job at the Post Office in Topeka. Larry worked in East Topeka; Eddie worked at the main post office and I worked at the North Topeka facility. We mostly helped the janitor with cleaning up the place. It was a good experience and it sure beat the heck out of working for farmers throwing hay in the heat. As I said we were pretty damn poor so this money we earned helped us buy clothes and that was one less worry for our mother, so I can understand to a certain extent why those kids worked in those fields.

But getting back to the story at hand, it is a sad story in a lot of ways. These kids don't have much of a childhood and it shows how bad the economic picture is in some parts of this great land.

Work Update

2010-07-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

I take a lot of pride in going to work everyday and try hard to do my job right. But one day in my early morning reading of the local rag somebody quoted Charles de Gualle, of French fame. He said the "graveyards are full of indispensable people." So I said damn I better take a few days off - 3 to be exact. Some call that a mini-vacation. I didn't go to any exotic location, hell I didn't even go to Topeka. I stayed home and caught up on some work in my yard, garden and did some carpentry work. In my old age I'm trying to build things. Some turn out right, others not.

I also slept in. I woke up a 5:45 a.m. every morning. Lazy, huh? I mowed my yard which is my number one priority in the summer-time. I got a lot of those weeds out of my garden, and picked new tators for immediate consumption. I build some new steps in my workshop area and a small wall and put in a door. Being a wanna be carpenter is hard work and time consuming. And after this spurt of manual labor, there was a mess to clean up. It took several days to do these projects, but now I freed up some time in the future for some small woodworking projects.

On Saturday night. we had a rain storm and boy did it every come down. This is the most rain I seen come down in such a short time. In fact, the creeks were almost overflowing the banks. I've never seen that much water in the creeks for a long, long time. My daughter and two of my grandchildren had gone to a movie in Topeka and narrowly missed getting hit by a tornado, just south of of the casino on Hwy 75. I'm glad somebody was watching out for them. It was strange because there were no warnings and this tornado came out of nowhere. Our weather has a tendency to be unpredictable.

It turned out that my work place went on without me so it's true being indispenable is only a figment of the imagination.

Potawatomi Golfer

2010-07-04T05:20:00.000-07:00

Golf sure isn't an easy game which may explain why I don't get out there much. In fact, I've gone once in three years, but this isn't true for every Potawatomi. Steve McDonald has made the time to get on the course and has done well lately. He is on the verge of realizing his life-long dream of playing more on the pro circuit.

He recently qualified as the 1st alternate for the U.S. Senior Open and will likely get to play in this prestigious event. Getting to this point for Steve has been hard. He played in many tournaments over the years winning some and losing some but now if he does well in this tournament it could mean big things for him. These guys at this level by doing well attract the big sponsors. This means he won't have to struggle getting to tournaments, will have the pick of all the new technology and get more exposure. You never know - if he puts together some great rounds...I hope he does well!

Steve is the golf pro at a local Topeka golf course and comes from a family of athletes. His dad John played the golf game for years. His brother Mick was a big guy on the softball fields and now shoots in the 80s in golf. His son Alex recently made all-city in golf and his daughter Emily was all-city a few years before and it earned a golf scholarship. The game goes on.

Steve is a Prairie Band of Potawatomi tribal member and once gave me some sound golf advice. He asked, after seeing me play golf, if I would consider working more on my yard and garden, so I took his advice!

The Day the Music died in Indian Topeka

2010-06-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

Maybe you’re getting old when…you look around and do a head-count and suddently realize that a lot of your friends have died. Some have died young, and others were too old to die young. A case in point is the Potawatomi song-maker Gary Cooper. He died today. I knew Gary every since we were kids. His Dad Walter Cooper taught school in Delia, Kansas and they had a house right down the street from the school. We went to school there only briefly, but that was the first memory I had of him playing in that front yard.

Over the years, my brothers and I would run across him at different events. He was a friendly guy and became a life-long friend. He was a cousin to one of our old friends Vernon Yazzie. Vernon went to the same school as us and we stayed at each others homes and this was how we would often run into Gary Cooper in our excursions into t-town. In revisionist history, they are called excursions.Vernon was one of those guys who died young.

Gary started a band and played in every honky-tonk in the area, sometimes twice. He must have made a decent living at it because he played right up until the bitter end, but truthfully our chosen hobby doesn’t’ pay the bills, so Gary did some roofing work with his dad in a day job. They had a house in North Topeka. We grew up on the reservation and he in the big city. Our paths crossed many times over the years, but as it happens in life, we rarely saw each other in the last few years because my focus changed to family and family type events. Gary never did marry and stayed close with the guitar.

The last time I saw Gary was the Potawatomi Gathering held here last year. He played up on the stage and I dropped by to see him and when I was leaving he said “I’m going to dedicate the next song to Gary Mitchell.” He did that to a lot of people beside me and it made us feel good for a second or two. He was in a wheel-chair and his health had steadily declined over the last few years, but he did what he liked until he couldn’t anymore. Around these parts there were few Indian bands, but there was a song-maker once, his name was Gary Cooper.

Old boxing stories

2010-06-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

I ran across an old clipping from the Holton Recorder and this guy named Jim Hoy wrote an article called: Jess Willard was the Pottawatomie Giant. According to the story Willard was the World Boxing Champion from 1913 to 1919. “As a fighter, he was variously nicknamed the “Kansas Giant” or the “Pottawatomie Giant, but whether this latter sobriquet came from the county he lived in or from the Indians with whom he traded horses on the reservation in neighboring Jackson County, I don’t know.”

I remember talking to Maynard Potts, who at the time was in his 90s, about Willard. Maynard had a great memory and could tell some great episodes of Potawatomi life. He said there used to be a store on the southwest side of the reservation and Willard was just starting out in boxing and the Indian boys from around the reservation would go down there and try him out, but would always lose. This was a funny story.

All is quiet on the home front

2010-06-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Around here everything is quiet on the home front. The Pow-Wow has come and gone. The rains come and the heat stifles the air the next moment and the rains come again, but that’s the way it is in the summer time. But those conditions can only help our gardens. The tribal elections are getting closer. The expectations are low so it’s not that exciting. The Potawatomi Gathering is coming up in August but that is in Oklahoma, a place hotter than here.

So we have to cross the borders of this reservation to find some real excitement. In Missouri, a farmer put up a sign in his field that said “Democrats – Party of the Parasites,” and although it is in an area of Republicans, somebody took exception to his yard art and set it afire, not once but twice. Funny! But there is more to this guy's story: He received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995. Around here, they don’t put up political signs –yet, but they could get burned too. Who really knows? While we are on the Missouri topic, the Royals are not in last place but pretty damn close.

Tiger didn’t win the U.S. Open but the poor guy still ended up with a pretty fair paycheck of $300,000. They say part of his game is gone and maybe it will come back, maybe not. I personally wouldn’t count him out just yet. A lot of people couldn't care less what happens with some of these pro athletes because of their feelings of entitlement and their attitudes of being above others, but this is Sports America.

In the Deep South, first they get a horrible hurricane and now oil is going everywhere ruining their environment and seashores. Some say it’s the price you pay for a view but it also is affecting their livelihoods and that isn’t good. The politicians will make some empty promises and soon will forget them. Yet, that isn't good for the people who depend on the sea or the fish-consumers of the world either.

On a sad note, we lost three people here: Mike Jensen, Dale Thomas and Wesley Begay. Age or cancer took their lives. Death is an inescapable truth here and everywhere. I knew all three men and they each made their own marks on this life. Life does go by fast, make the most of it.

Busy Weekend Again!

2010-06-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

In many parts of the country, there are oil spills, storms and flash floods causing extensive damage and deaths to wildlife and humans alike. Here there wasn't anything of that magnitude, but there were challenges. On the Prairie Band Reservation the 2010 Pow-Wow survived some heavy rains and some hellious humidity, but between rain-falls the pow-wow was completed in its entirety.

There were people from all over joining the celebration and vendors everywhere. It was all good. I’m glad they had a good experience coming to our reservation. The most important thing that these pow-wows can do is highlight the progress the tribe has made over the last few years. The only real drawback is that everybody can't win. Some make big money, others don't. That's the way of the pow-wow.

I missed parts of it because I attended my nephews wedding. I’ve been around Willie Potts since he was a baby and now he’s 35 years old and married. He asked me to come to the ceremony and say a prayer in our language and I’m glad I could help him out. I also count his parents as long-time friends. I don't have many of those so its important to keep the ones you have. Why? You'd want at least a few people at your funeral. An old coon-hunter told me once after I told him I was getting into the frying pan of tribal politics 20 some years ago: "now you will find out who your friends are," and I've found out his words were true. There was a lot of hard work planning the wedding and everything went well. The company was good. The food was good. I imagine that day will be a positive experience for both Willie and Tracy. After it was over, we went home to rest and later we caught the evening performance at the pow-wow.

On Sunday, I stayed home and did some work. I figure the pow-wow would go on without me and it did. My daughter told me that the work could wait until after the pow-wow. True, but I just can't tell my inner self that yet. I was able to get most of my yard mowed and did some more organizing in my workshop. I told my wife that I will get organized before I cash in the chips and I will. I put up a new mailbox that my sister-in-law gave us. It came from Canada. I just hope the young hoodlums who go around bashing mailbox’s will leave this one alone, but with that said they probaby will do just that. My neighbor gave up and rented a post-office box to get his mail.

We packed in a lot this weekend and by Sunday night I was fairly tired. I slept so hard that I didn’t hear the storm outside and I guess there were tornado warnings everywhere. The rain was good for the garden. It rained close to 4” here. Now the Potawatomi Gathering is next, but we are not sure we are going yet.

Michelle Obama meets a Potawatomi girl

2010-06-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

My granddaughter Tara was able to meet the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Her husband Dawson was part of the Marine Corp security provided for the First Lady in her visit to San Diego. Tara was able to sit in one of the front rows. Ms. Obama made a visit to encourage the Marines and their families. Tara said she "felt pretty blessed to meet the first African-American First Lady. She's a beautiful and wise woman." This happened today at Camp Pendleton.

Pow-Wow thoughts!

2010-06-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

Our annual pow-wow is this weekend and the weather is suppose to great until maybe Saturday night when the rains are threatening to drop by, but it’s also an opportunity to have a good time, no matter your political affiliation. It's a time to watch the dancers do their thing. The food promises to be good, I promise. The stands have a lot to offer. The grounds are a great sight for new visitors to our reservation. And it will be a good time to see some old friends like the mc -Wallace Coffy of Oklahoma, an old friend and a battle-scarred politician who can tell you a couple of stories.

My girl Joanna (a.k.a. Juana; Dumplins or Dumps) has worked constantly in the evenings and weekends on the crown for the pow-wow princess. I imagine she is happy it is finished, because it was some real time-consuming work. Her work is top-of-the –line. It sure appears to me she has the patience and that would be a requirement in beadwork. But, don't take my word for it though, look at the picture on the right and judge for yourself!

Beadwork does seem hard to do, at least in my estimation, and it’s good to know it won’t die out. It isn’t easy the way Stephen Strasburg made it look when he struck out 14 batters in his first game with the Washington Nationals last night. The boy was throwin the fastball 100 mph and that is awesome, at least it looked that way on the highlights.

His debut was on another ESPN channel, but I watched the Woman’s College World Series on another station. I watch the series every year. Those girls are excellent athletes and I watched quite a few games. I do have to apologize to my yard for not mowing during these games, but what do you do? Softball was part of so much of my adult life and it’s hard to give up.

Enough tangents, the pow-wow is almost upon us and it will be worth your time to attend and another bonus - the politicians will be out in force kissin babies and their mommas if given the opportunity. That too is a must-see!

Pow-Wow time!

2010-06-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Over the holiday weekend, we loaded up the family and drove to Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Our main reasoning for leaving our reservation was to take part in a tribal ceremony they were having for my granddaughter's husband, but that soon fell through when he missed his plane in San Diego. But, we improvised and made the most of it and watched the Ho Chunk Veteran’s Pow-Wow.

Right off I ran into Billy Daniels, afamous guy from the Forest County Potawatomi. I’ve known Billy for a good long while now. The first time I met Billy was at a service in Wisconsin back in the early 1990s. I was impressed with him since he knew the tribal language and the Indian ways. He has come down to our rez a few times and attended our services and has stayed at my home, so it was good to see him again.

The kids danced and I sat under the nearest shade since it was fairly hot. The announcer said they had over 380 dancers, a pretty good total since it wasn’t a contest pow-wow. I like going to pow-wows to watch the people, dancers, visit on occasion and look at the stands. There is some great beadwork and craftwork out there and I imagine it takes some time to make them so the prices are probably right. I have nothing to compare it to since I have no artistic talent.

After the pow-wow the kids swam in a nearby swim area with a beach, if you imagine a beach in Wisconsin. And they swam in the hotel pool again when we got back. We kept some late hours which ran against the grain for us old folks but it was nothing for the kids. I think they enjoyed the trip. They swam, danced and filled their bellies and got to see something different. It was a good start on their summer vacation and as I remember summer doesn't last long enough when your in school.

We stopped at a casino on the way there and spent the night and won enough gas money to get to the next casino. It was a good experience to see how other Indians conduct their pow-wows and run their gaming operations. Our pow-wow is coming up June 11-13 and I hope it is a good experience for everybody.

Wisconsin used to be our home-20 and I can see why we were removed. It is a beautiful area, lot of trees, great looking farm-land and hilly. On the way there I did most of the driving and I got to pass some old people three or four times which is pretty unusual for me since they usually pass me up. Isn’t that sad to have something like that make you feel good?

A bit of advice for you summer travelers: don’t talk to strangers unless their paying you a jackpot, drive the speed limit or maybe a couple of miles over and don't charge too much because the bills will hit the mailbox sooner or later. On the home-front have somebody watch your house and don’t tell nobody your gone, because you might have all your stuff gone when you get back. It’s nice to get away on occasion, but home is where it’s at for me.

Center-Field

2010-05-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

I always thought John Fogerty was one of the top song writers of all time. Some say Dylan was the best, but he didn’t do what John Fogerty has done. His song "Centerfield," gets inducted into Cooperstown this summer. He will be the only musician ever inducted the Baseball Hall of Fame. He wrote the song after watching Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle roam centerfield for the Yankees and Willie Mays for the Giants.

I was lucky to be able to get autographs from these three all-time greats at a time when I was in a collecting phase. In a recent article in Rolling Stone, Fogerty said when he goes to Cooperstown for the induction he will ask for autographs from some of the baseball stars there. "I've met a few of my boyhood heroes already," he says, "and even though I am 65-years-old, I will turn into a 10-year-old. I've got a baseball and a pen and I'll say something like, 'Well, Mr. Ripken, can you sign my baseball?' And he'll be like, 'Oh, is it for your son?' And I'll say, 'No, it's for me.'" Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!

Most people probably don’t remember John Fogerty. He was part of the music group Creedance Clearwater Revival and his songs were very much part of the 1960s and part of the music me and my brothers grew up listening to during our teenage years. Some of his songs were: “Proud Mary,” "Green River," "Have You Ever Seen the Rain," "Bad Moon Rising" and "Travelin' Band,” to name just a few. You can hear his music on some of the war movies put out a few years back. He tours alone now because of some differences with his band, but that doesn’t take away from his song-writing abilities. And who else can say they have a song of theirs in the Baseball Hall of Fame?